Word of the day 12.05

Question

prestidigitation  any suggestions ?

Tam · Accepted Answer

0 To be very good at magic tricks or con tricks, which require the use of hands. 02br
02br
00Nice word! 0-

Pia · Answer

0 yep 10/10 !!! 02br
02br
00sleight of hand, legerdemain 02br
02br
00Example sentence: 02br
00 My brother, an amateur magician, loves to entertain the 02br
00family with card tricks, disappearing scarves, coins that seem 02br
00to appear from nowhere, and other feats of prestidigitation. 02br
02br
00Did you know? 02br
00 The secret to performing magic tricks is all in the hands -- 02br
00or at least, that's what is suggested by the etymologies 02br
00of "prestidigitation" and its two synonyms "legerdemain" 02br
00and "sleight of hand." The French word "preste" (from 02br
00Italian "presto") means "quick" or "nimble," and the Latin 02br
00word "digitus" means "finger." Put them together and 02br
00-- presto! -- you've got "prestidigitation." 02br
00Similarly, "legerdemain" was conjured up from the French 02br
00phrase "leger de main," which translates to 02br
00"light of hand." The third term, "sleight of hand," involves the 02br
00least etymological hocus-pocus; it simply joins "hand" 02br
00with "sleight," meaning "dexterity." 0-

Tam · Answer

0 I did not know all that... very interesting! 02br
02br
00Does anyone know where the word 01b00 Hocus Pocus 02b00 comes from? 0-

Chris · Answer

0The word is nowadays applied to anything, speech or action, that’s designed to stop you seeing what the politician or salesman is really up to or what’s actually happening. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, Dorothy ... 02br
00It is known that the word appeared in the seventeenth century as a mock-Latin formula or incantation used by conjurors. What that formula was and where it came from is less certain. 02br
00Thomas Ady wrote in his book of 1655, A Candle in the Dark; or, a Treatise Concerning the Nature of Witches and Witchcraft: “I will speak of one man ... that went about in King James his time ... who called himself, The Kings Majesties most excellent Hocus Pocus, and so was called, because that at the playing of every Trick, he used to say, Hocus pocus, tontus talontus, vade celeriter jubeo, a dark composure of words, to blinde the eyes of the beholders, to make his Trick pass the more currantly without discovery”. 02br
00Many people today believe that the phrase originated in a corrupted form of the words of the consecration of the host in the old Latin mass: hoc est (enim) corpus (meum), “this is my body”, an idea that was first aired by John Tillotson, who was Archbishop of Canterbury between 1691 and 1694. But as this was part of an anti-Catholic sermon, it may be taken with a fair-sized pinch of salt. Another possibility, suggested in current Oxford dictionaries, is the nonsense Latin phrase “hax pax max Deus adimax”. 02br
00Whatever the source, hocus-pocus was at first a general name for jugglers and conjurers and then—later in the seventeenth century—it became a term for a trick or deception. It’s also the source of another common English word, since at the end of the following century it was contracted to make hoax. 02br
02br
00Taken from: 02br
05000 02br
02br
00I've learnt smething new today too Tam, 02br
02br
00chris 0230hrefhttp://www.quinion.com/words/weirdwords/ww-hoc1.htm

Word of the day 12.05

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