incantation

EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English incantacioun, from Old French incantation, from Latin incantatio. More at enchant.

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /inkænˈteɪʃən/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən

NounEdit

incantation (plural incantations)

  1. The act or process of using formulas and/or usually rhyming words, sung or spoken, with occult ceremonies, for the purpose of raising spirits, producing enchantment, or creating other magical results.
    Synonym: galdr
    • 2008, “Red Letter Year”, in Red Letter Year[1], performed by Ani Difranco:
      new years eve we dropped mushrooms / and danced around the house / making music with everything that we found / incantation replaced resolution
  2. A formula of words used as above.
  3. (computing, slang) Any esoteric command or procedure.
    • 1998, John Purcell, Robert Kiesling, Linux: The Complete Reference: Book 1 (page 412)
      The appropriate incantation of route is shown below; the gw keyword tells it that the next argument denotes a gateway.
    • 2005, Kyle Rankin, Linux Multimedia Hacks: Tips & Tools for Taming Images, Audio, and Video:
      There's more than one command incantation to create an AVI. It's all a question of experimenting with the different audio and video codecs.
    • 2017, James Pogran, Learning PowerShell DSC (page 11)
      Servers move from being special snowflakes to being disposable numbers on a list that can be created and destroyed without requiring someone to remember the specific incantation to make it work.

Related termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from Late Latin incantātiō. Synchronically analysable as incanter +‎ -ation.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

incantation f (plural incantations)

  1. incantation

Related termsEdit

Further readingEdit