Is ‘Avada Kedavra’ a real curse?

In Harry Potter’s world, this is a killing curse, the worst of the three unforgivable curses, use of which can bring a life term at the Azkaban prison. This is the spell that Voldemort used to kill Harry’s parents, he even tried to use the same to kill Harry but his mother’s love shielded him and sadly, the same one which hit Cedric Diggory. This is the same spell that Snape used to kill Dumbledore. Harry is the only known person in the history of wizarding world to survive this.

Even though J.K. Rowling has framed most of his spells using her imagination but the spell ‘Avada Kedavra’ has been derived from a Middle Eastern language Aramaic, “Abhadda Kedhabra”. This means ‘disappear like this word’. It was used by ancient wizards to vanish illness. However, there is no proof that it was ever used to kill anyone.

The phrase was also used to frame the magical word abracadabra. Now just part of a magician’s entertainment chatter, this word was once used by doctors.

Quintus Serenus Sammonicus, a Roman physician who lived about AD 200, used it as a spell to make fever disapper. According to his description, it was suggested to write that word 11 times with one letter disappearing every time.

The paper was to be tide to the patient’s neck with a flax and to be tossed over the shoulder into a running stream flowing towards eats. Once the letter on the paper dissolve, the fever would disappear. The popularity of this cure grew in the centuries after Sammonicus, and it was even used to make Black Death disappear. Clever readers will understand that this remedy does one thing, if nothing else practically, lets time pass. Because many diseases run their course for a time of a week or two, the spell didn’t do any good at all. On the other hand it didn’t hurt.