A Charm Was a Sung Spell Before It Was a Bracelet
Charm is the power to please, a small trinket, or a magic spell. All three go back to a Latin word for a song.
Charm is the power to attract or delight, a small object worn for luck, or a magic spell. The spell came first: Latin *carmen* meant a song or incantation, so a charm was something you sang over a person. The social sense — the ability to please — is the same idea drained of magic, and a charm bracelet keeps the object. Physics borrowed the word too, for one of the six flavours of quark.
- The power to please. *Great personal charm.*
- A small trinket. *A charm bracelet.*
- A magic spell. *A protective charm.*
- To delight. *He charmed the room.*
- Charm quark — a particle flavour. *The charm quark.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | charm | Natural charm. |
| Plural | charms | Silver charms. |
| Verb | charm | Charm the guests. |
| Adjective | charming | A charming house. |
| Latin | carmen | A song or spell. |
- He talked his way in on charm alone.Social.
- She added a charm to the bracelet.Object.
- It worked like a charm.Idiom: perfectly.
Charm phrases
- Work like a charm — succeed perfectly
- Third time's the charm — the third attempt succeeds
- Turn on the charm — deploy it deliberately
- Lucky charm — an object carried for luck
- Charm offensive — a deliberate campaign to win people over
Old French *charme*, an incantation, from Latin *carmen*, a song, verse or charm, from *canere*, to sing.
Why is a bracelet trinket called a charm?
Because such objects were originally worn as protective spells. The magic sense faded and the object kept the name.
What is a charm quark?
One of the six flavours of quark in particle physics, named playfully in the 1970s.