incantation 復習

　“Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out”: the muttered incantation of the emperor in Robert Graves’s Claudius the God has rarely seemed so apposite. It is time for this government to drop the pretence that it is healthy and functioning. A reckoning is long past due. Daily, we see a new pustule or sore – on some days several. According to the Sunday Times, the Brexiteers are plotting to install Boris Johnson as prime minister, Michael Gove as his deputy and Jacob Rees-Mogg as chancellor. The last of those would be especially contentious, since the Moggster has spent much of the past week accusing the Treasury of “fiddling the figures” in its analysis of Britain’s prospective departure from the EU. (Skip the rest)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/04/brexit-mess-theresa-may-tories

　今回取り上げる語は、incantation / ìnkæntéɪʃən / です。
　まず意味を確認します。LDOCEをみると、“special words that someone uses in magic, or the act of saying these words” とあり、Cambridge Dictionary をみると、 “(the performance of) words that are believed to have a magical effect when spoken or sung” と定義されていました。また、『ウィズダム英和辞典』(三省堂)をみると、「(1)呪文、まじない、(2)魔術をかけること、魔法」とあります。
　次に語源を確認します。OEDをみると、“Late Middle English: via Old French from late Latin incantatio(n-), from incantare ‘chant, bewitch’ (see incant)” とあり、関連のある “incant” を調べてみると、“Mid 16th century (in the sense ‘use enchantment on’): from Latin incantare ‘to chant, charm’, from in- (expressing intensive force) + cantare ‘sing’. The current sense dates from the mid 20th century.” とありました。(OkaUchi)