Good questions. Abracadabra is hotly disputed but may come from Semitic roots related to avad and davar, meaning "it is done as I say"; other etymologies exist. This would also work in Arabic.
For alakazam, an archived link from Wiktionary goes back to Alagazam in 1881, from California and then Hawaii. Thus the Arabic origin is likely a later rationalization; "Kazaam" is not an independent word (great is "akbar"). Sesame Street popularized the variation that I'd spell "a la peanut butter sandwiches", which is pronounced as if taking the first part from the French "a la"; but it's not a completely innocent incantation either.
Yes, a genie repeating "Mecca" is likely to be intentional and the remaining syllables might be nonsense but might have a hidden meaning; and there's enough data about Paul Reubens to smoke more out there.
There are at least three issues, one being what is the historical meaning of a word, one being what can be evidenced as an attempt to insert new meaning into it, and one being what can be speculated upon. The difficulty is that as elite researchers we should keep them separate. We don't get to treat our speculations as necessarily intentional, and we don't get to treat what looks intentional as necessarily mainstreamed.
However, we can definitely say that "shazam" was coined in 1940 with explicit reference to paganism ("Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury"); so that gives us a potential trail for interpreting the earlier "alagazam" and variations. And who knows, shazam might someday get us all the way back to seshem (allegedly sesame)! I believe that everything hidden will be revealed.
And here's a more direct link: Arabic Sesame Street is called "Iftah Ya Simsim", Open Sesame, 1979, so that indicates intentional reference to genies, which can be inferred to apply to the English version as well. I might also accept that sesame has some old thread of arcane meaning; but it's not likely to be an Egyptian one. Again, my take is to put a restraint on headstrong, panicky allegations and to counsel people toward evidentiary, viable criticism.
Add: "hocus pocus" and "presto" are correct as you say.
Add: The "seshemu" claim seems to go back to Barbara Walker, Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, 1986, from which I reconstructed this erratic snippet:
The divine Houris also dwelt in the moon, which probably was the light of Aladdin's secret cave. See Moon. The Arabian Nights gave the password to Aladdin's cave: Open, Sesame. This was related to Egyptian seshemu, "sexual intercourse." The hieroglyphic sign of seshemu was a penis inserted into an arched yoni-symbol. Every ancient culture used some form of sexual for the idea of man-entering-paradise. Symbolism 1. Zimmer ( 54. 2. Polo 53-54. 3. Campbell, Oc. M, 430.
So unless Walker's sources can be traced I don't think the connection of intercourse to seshemu or seshemu to sesame should be sustained, as they're not independently verifiable but are likely to be imaginative.
And we haven't touched on Disney's Aladdin and the thousand-year disputed etymology of Disney.
Good additional, and agreed. As noted, I have little solid there, so most of it shouldn’t be taken as “true” per se, just pointing at a lot of smoke.
"Kazaam" is not an independent word (great is "akbar")
Derp. Yes. It’s been a while since I did that dig. Really thought I did find something solid on it, but yes it might not have been “great”. Shaq (father is Muslim) did a movie called Kazaam also. (Or perhaps Sinbad made it, for some of us)
Yes. For completeness, here is the searchable Magic Words, which attributes the sesame link to Walker's encyclopedia, 1983, so I think that pretty well confirms that her odd interpretation is the source. A Japanese site that mentions this source seems to attribute the seshemu data to (Wallis) Budge page 58, but naming that respectable author could mean many different books. The closest hit I find is Gods of the Egyptians in which Shesemu (not seshemu) is a divine butcher on page 50; that's much different and doesn't justify any of Walker's wild assumptions.
Funny, the next Magic Words after "sesame" are "shabukalakazam", "shallakazam", "sharing", and "shazam". Coincidence of course.
Last bizarre point: "Allahu akbar" in Hebrew cognates is just "El-Gibbor", a Biblical term for the great God. Arabic Christians have no trouble referring "Allahu akbar" to the Christian God and meaning the same thing as the Hebrew, but that's not yet the majority definition of "Allah".
Good questions. Abracadabra is hotly disputed but may come from Semitic roots related to avad and davar, meaning "it is done as I say"; other etymologies exist. This would also work in Arabic.
For alakazam, an archived link from Wiktionary goes back to Alagazam in 1881, from California and then Hawaii. Thus the Arabic origin is likely a later rationalization; "Kazaam" is not an independent word (great is "akbar"). Sesame Street popularized the variation that I'd spell "a la peanut butter sandwiches", which is pronounced as if taking the first part from the French "a la"; but it's not a completely innocent incantation either.
Yes, a genie repeating "Mecca" is likely to be intentional and the remaining syllables might be nonsense but might have a hidden meaning; and there's enough data about Paul Reubens to smoke more out there.
There are at least three issues, one being what is the historical meaning of a word, one being what can be evidenced as an attempt to insert new meaning into it, and one being what can be speculated upon. The difficulty is that as elite researchers we should keep them separate. We don't get to treat our speculations as necessarily intentional, and we don't get to treat what looks intentional as necessarily mainstreamed.
However, we can definitely say that "shazam" was coined in 1940 with explicit reference to paganism ("Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury"); so that gives us a potential trail for interpreting the earlier "alagazam" and variations. And who knows, shazam might someday get us all the way back to seshem (allegedly sesame)! I believe that everything hidden will be revealed.
And here's a more direct link: Arabic Sesame Street is called "Iftah Ya Simsim", Open Sesame, 1979, so that indicates intentional reference to genies, which can be inferred to apply to the English version as well. I might also accept that sesame has some old thread of arcane meaning; but it's not likely to be an Egyptian one. Again, my take is to put a restraint on headstrong, panicky allegations and to counsel people toward evidentiary, viable criticism.
Add: "hocus pocus" and "presto" are correct as you say.
Add: The "seshemu" claim seems to go back to Barbara Walker, Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, 1986, from which I reconstructed this erratic snippet:
So unless Walker's sources can be traced I don't think the connection of intercourse to seshemu or seshemu to sesame should be sustained, as they're not independently verifiable but are likely to be imaginative.
And we haven't touched on Disney's Aladdin and the thousand-year disputed etymology of Disney.
“it is done as I say"
That sounds very similar to the meaning of “Amen”, except amen is tied to prayer, and to “as YOU say”, while this one is tied to magic.
Interesting.
Good additional, and agreed. As noted, I have little solid there, so most of it shouldn’t be taken as “true” per se, just pointing at a lot of smoke.
Derp. Yes. It’s been a while since I did that dig. Really thought I did find something solid on it, but yes it might not have been “great”. Shaq (father is Muslim) did a movie called Kazaam also. (Or perhaps Sinbad made it, for some of us)
Yes. For completeness, here is the searchable Magic Words, which attributes the sesame link to Walker's encyclopedia, 1983, so I think that pretty well confirms that her odd interpretation is the source. A Japanese site that mentions this source seems to attribute the seshemu data to (Wallis) Budge page 58, but naming that respectable author could mean many different books. The closest hit I find is Gods of the Egyptians in which Shesemu (not seshemu) is a divine butcher on page 50; that's much different and doesn't justify any of Walker's wild assumptions.
Funny, the next Magic Words after "sesame" are "shabukalakazam", "shallakazam", "sharing", and "shazam". Coincidence of course.
Last bizarre point: "Allahu akbar" in Hebrew cognates is just "El-Gibbor", a Biblical term for the great God. Arabic Christians have no trouble referring "Allahu akbar" to the Christian God and meaning the same thing as the Hebrew, but that's not yet the majority definition of "Allah".