Etymology

open sesame

Today it means: open up (especially referring to doors) Full definition →

French Sésame, ouvre-toi
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The story

  1. French · calque ofSésame, ouvre-toi
  2. English todayopen sesame

From its use in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, translating French Sésame, ouvre-toi in Antoine Galland's version of the Ali Baba story in the One Thousand and One Nights, possibly based on an oral Arabic source. Not, as some have purported, a corruption of Open, says me!.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.