a magical word, recommended by Serenus Samonius as an antidote against agues and several other diseases. It was to be written upon a piece of paper as many times as the word contains letters, omitting the last letter of the former every time, as in the margin, and repeated in the same order; and then suspended about the neck by a linen thread. Abracadabra was the name of a god worshipped by the Syrians, the wearing of whose name was a sort of invocation of his aid.