"Abi in malem cursem"

This thesis collects and analyses the Latin-language spellings present in the Netflix audiovisual web series ’The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’. The treatment of the Latin spells consists of a quantitative analysis, which provides insight into the frequency and distribution of the Latin spells and their relationship to the English ones, and a qualitative one, which goes into the details of single significant occurrences. The first shows how Latin spells are preferred to English ones due to two criteria: the generic nature of the spell and the inherent ’magical power’ of Latin. From the second, Latin phrases were found to be a pastiche of Anglisms and uses of Vulgar Latin, borrowings from poetic memory, and biblical expressions. These traditional models are juxtaposed with the use of today’s easy-to-use, web-based tools, such as ebooks on Latin spellings or the Google Translate platform, which allows approximate translations into Latin. Deviations from standard Latin can be traced back to the ancient magical writing genre of defixiones, with morphology and syntax distorted for magical purposes.