I'm a young folkity and you can think of me as your friendly guide to the English language.

We talk about writing, history, rules, and cool stuff.

Today we're going to talk about a bunch of spooky special words.

With Halloween right around the corner, there tends to be a lot of talk about magic,

from Aegee IC, or is it magic spelled M-A-G-I-C-K, henceforth, referred to as magic with a K?

When looking through literature, especially fiction, it's not uncommon to come across the

different spelling of magic.

But this leaves us with the question of whether the two spellings have different meanings.

With National Novel Writing Month also coming up in November, we wondered, is there a difference

between a protagonist who does regular magic, versus one who does magic with a K?

If we look at how the word magic has changed throughout history, the modern word magic is

derived from magic with a K. According to Britannica, the word magic dates back to at least

the ancient Greeks, with the earliest form being M-A-G-I-K-E. And looking through history,

the form of the word hasn't changed much. Magic with a K appeared in Old English during

the medieval period, beginning around the 1500s. It was spelled M-A-G-I-C-K-E. The E at

the end was dropped around the 1600s, and eventually the K was dropped too, giving us the spelling

we see today. Digging deeper is important to take a look at the definitions and how people

use the two spellings. Merriam Webster defines magic as quote, the use of means, such as

charms or spells, believed to have supernatural power over natural forces, or the art of producing

illusions by slight of hand. Thus, magic is used by witches and other magical beings, or by

stage magicians. It gets even more interesting when looking at the definition of magic with a K,

since there is no dictionary entry, at least in Merriam Webster. But before we get to the

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