2023-07-02 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด M - Magic & magical

Revision M

 

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ความหมาย อาจยืดหยุ่น ขึ้นอยู่กับ ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค

 

Dictionary.com

ออกเสียง Magic = ‘MAJ-ik’

ออกเสียง magical = ‘MAJ-i-kuhl’

 

NECTEC’s Lexitron-2 Dictionary

ให้คำแปลMagic = N. เวทมนตร์/มายากล Adj. วิเศษ

ให้คำแปลmagical = Adj. วิเศษ/สนุกสนานอย่างมาก

 

Dictionary.com

SYNONYM STUDY FOR MAGIC

Magic, necromancy, sorcery, witchcraft

imply producing results through mysterious influences or unexplained powers.

 

Magic may have glamorous and attractive connotations;

the other terms suggest the harmful and sinister.

 

Magic is an art employing some occult force of nature:

 

A hundred years ago television would have seemed to be magic.

 

Necromancy is an art of prediction based on alleged communication with the dead 

(it is called “the black art,” because Greek nekrós, dead, 

was confused with Latin niger, black): 

Necromancy led to violating graves.

 

Sorcery, originally divination by casting lots, 

came to mean supernatural knowledge gained through 

the aid of evil spirits, and often used for evil ends:

spells and charms used in sorcery.

Witchcraft especially suggests a malign kind of magic,

often used against innocent victims:

Those accused of witchcraft were executed.

 

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Word History

Noah Webster’s Spelling Wins and Fails

WIN: Magic

Since magical lacks a "k,"

it only makes sense 

(thought Noah Webster, and as far back as his 1806 dictionary) 

that magic too would go without a "k"

—hence no magick in American English.

 

The same reasoning gave us also our public and traffic spellings, 

as well as others.

 

The words gimmick and haddock and maverick 

have no k-less relation 

(there is no gimmical, haddocal or maverical) 

to argue away their "k's."

 

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Sympathetic, magic

noun: magic based on the assumption 

that a person or thing can be supernaturally affected 

through its name or an object representing

 

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.

[คำแปล numinous = เป็นเรื่องเหนือธรรมชาติ/เกี่ยวกับพระเจ้า]

The term dates to the early 20th century, 

when Western anthropologists were trying 

to develop a universal definition of magic:

 

Heir to the eighteenth-century Positivist 

assumption of "laws" governing nature and society, 

[British anthropologist James] Frazer said that 

sympathetic magic was of two types. 

"Homeopathic" magic works according to the "law of similarity"

—things or actions that resemble other things or actions 

have a causal connection. 

"Contagious magic" obeys the "law of contact"

—things that have been either in physical contact 

or in spatial or temporal association with other things 

retain a connection after they are separated.
— Phillips Stevens, Jr., 

The Skeptical Inquirer, November/December 2001

 

Collins COBUILD English Usage

Magic & magical

1. 'magic' used as a noun

Magic is a special power that occurs in children's stories

and that some people believe exists.

It can make apparently impossible things happen.

Janoo-Bai was suspected of practising magic.

 

2. 'magic' used as an adjective

You use magic in front of a noun to indicate 

that an object or utterance does things 

or appears to do things by magic.

...a magic potion.

...the magic password.

 

3. 'magical'

Magical can be used with a similar meaning.

...magical garments.

...a magical car.

You also use magical to say that something

involves magic or is produced by magic.

...medieval magical practices.

...a little boy who has magical powers.

 

4. another meaning

Magic and magical can also be used 

to say that something is wonderful and exciting.

...a truly magic moment.

The journey had lost its magical quality.

 

Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression

Magic & magical

As a noun, magic refers to producing results

through mysterious influences or unexplained powers.

 

It involves the control by persons skilled in magic of 

supernatural agencies and the forces of nature.

In view of this meaning,

magic seems loosely used and overused 

to refer to occurrences that might correctly 

be labeled “unusual,” “effective,” or “spectacular.”

“His piano playing was magic” and

“When she smiled, the effect was magic”

are examples of such misuses of a powerfully charged word.

 

As an adjective, magic means much the same as magical,

but here again exaggeration is usually apparent:

“The lovers spent a magical (or magic) night” and

“This baritone has a magic (or magical) range to his voice”

are example of overemphasis.

 

Recommendation: 

use both adjectives sparingly

and always place magic directly before the word it modifies:

“magic number,” “magic square,” “magic lantern,” “magic artistry.”

If this can’t be done, use magical.