Have you learnt to spell?

10 incantations that make us all secretly feel like wizards and witches. By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth! Here they come

- Tanisha Saxena [e-mail]

1 Abracadabra. The spell that launched a thousand tricks is thought to have originated in the 2nd century. Roman physician Serenus Sammonicus advocated using it to ward off disease (He literally inscribed it in a vanishing-letter style, as in Poof, illness gone!) Even in 21st-century movies such as The Prestige, it's shorthand for the impossible made real. Guess we all still want to believe in magic.

2 Dracarys. It means Dragonfire, and took just one it's had a life outside the command, softly uttered GoT universe. In by Daenerys Targaryen cybersecurity, it's the on Game of Thrones name of a stealthy (2011-2019) for all hell to Android spyware. In break loose. Her three crypto, it fuels meme dragon kids would spew tokens. On social media, fire, incinerating enemies it's a battle cry for power into dust. The word and reinvention.

3 There’s No Place Like Home. Dorothy clicked those sequinned ruby slippers back in 1939, in The Wizard of Oz, and used the best magic of all. No wands, no Latin, just a longing for home. We understand completely.

Those twinkling shoes are now part of Hollywood history — but the real magic is in the spell. And the knowledge that the most powerful journeys don’t lead to new worlds, but back to where we belong.