noun : necromancy, magic, enchantment
Gramarye (also spelled gramary) comes from a Middle French word meaning “book of sorcery,” but also “grammar” or “grammar book.” Though modern English speakers don’t tend to mix their grammar with their sorcery, in medieval times the Latin word grammatica (and its lexical descendants in other languages) referred to (among other things) learning in general, which in those dark ages was understood by the unschooled populace of Europe to include magic and astrology.
Incantation
noun : a use of spells or verbal charms spoken or sung as a part of a ritual of magic; also : a written or recited formula of words designed to produce a particular effect
Incantation traces back to the Latin cantare, meaning “to sing”—the same source of the words chant and enchant. Another cantare word is the archaic, obscure, and semantically unexpected excantation, which refers to an act of freeing by enchantment.
noun : magic based on the assumption that a person or thing can be supernaturally affected through its name or an object representing it
Sympathetic magic posits that the relationship between a person or thing and something that represents that person or thing can be exploited by those with numinous intents. The term dates to the early 20th century, when Western anthropologists were trying to develop a universal definition of magic
noun : a female demon : vampire
When hiring babysitters, avoid all lamias. As a common noun, lamia refers to a female demon. The word comes from Greek lamia, meaning “devouring monster.” In Greek mythology, Lamia was known in particular for devouring children. She started out nice enough: a lovely queen of Libya who hooked up with Zeus. Zeus’s wife Hera did not take the news kindly, robbing Lamia of her Zeus-born children, to which the aggrieved Lamia responded by killing other people’s children—as many as she could. Lamia went on to be featured in the scare tactics of Athenian mothers and in literature by the likes of John Keats.
noun 1 : black magic : sorcery 2 a : a representation in words or pictures of black magic or of dealings with the devil b : demon lore
Like the more common diabolical, which means “of, relating to, or characteristic of the devil,” the 18th century French borrowing diablerie traces back to Latin diabolus, meaning “devil.” Diabolus, however, has less sinister (though still unpleasant) roots: the Greek diabolos, meaning “slanderer.”
Diablerie is sometimes applied when no devilry or magic is involved: the word also refers to mischievous conduct or manner, as in “the children’s playful diablerie.”
