What is "charm"

Charm \Charm\ (ch[aum]rm), n. [F. charme, fr. L. carmen song, verse, incantation, for casmen, akin to Skr. [,c]asman, [,c]as[=a], a laudatory song, from a root signifying to praise, to sing.]

1. A melody; a song. [Obs.]

   With charm of earliest birds.
   --Milton.

   Free liberty to chant our charms at will.
   --Spenser.

2. A word or combination of words sung or spoken in the practice of magic; a magical combination of words, characters, etc.; an incantation.

   My high charms work.
   --Shak.

3. That which exerts an irresistible power to please and attract; that which fascinates; any alluring quality.

   Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
   --Pope.

   The charm of beauty's powerful glance.
   --Milton.

4. Anything worn for its supposed efficacy to the wearer in averting ill or securing good fortune.

5. Any small decorative object worn on the person, as a seal, a key, a silver whistle, or the like. Bunches of charms are often worn at the watch chain.

6. (Physics) a property of certain quarks which may take the value of +1, -1 or 0.

   Syn: Spell; incantation; conjuration; enchantment; fascination; attraction.

Charm \Charm\, v. i.

1. To use magic arts or occult power; to make use of charms.

   The voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
   --Ps. lviii. 5.

2. To act as, or produce the effect of, a charm; to please greatly; to be fascinating.

3. To make a musical sound. [Obs.]
   --Milton.

Charm \Charm\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Charmed; p. pr. & vb. n. Charming.] [Cf. F. charmer. See Charm, n.]

1. To make music upon; to tune. [Obs. & R.]

   Here we our slender pipes may safely charm.
   --Spenser.

2. To subdue, control, or summon by incantation or supernatural influence; to affect by magic.

   No witchcraft charm thee!
   --Shak.

3. To subdue or overcome by some secret power, or by that which gives pleasure; to allay; to soothe.

   Music the fiercest grief can charm.
   --Pope.

4. To attract irresistibly; to delight exceedingly; to enchant; to fascinate.

   They, on their mirth and dance Intent, with jocund music charm his ear.
   --Milton.

5. To protect with, or make invulnerable by, spells, charms, or supernatural influences; as, a charmed life.

   I, in my own woe charmed, Could not find death.
   --Shak.

   Syn: Syn. - To fascinate; enchant; enrapture; captivate; bewitch; allure; subdue; delight; entice; transport.

c.1300, "incantation, magic charm," from Old French charme (12c.) "magic charm, magic, spell; incantation, song, lamentation," from Latin carmen "song, verse, enchantment, religious formula," from canere "to sing" (see chant (v.)), with dissimilation of -n- to -r- before -m- in intermediate form *canmen (for a similar evolution, see Latin germen "germ," from *genmen). The notion is of chanting or reciting verses of magical power.\n\nA yet stronger power than that of herb or stone lies in the spoken word, and all nations use it both for blessing and cursing. But these, to be effective, must be choice, well knit, rhythmic words (verba concepta), must have lilt and tune; hence all that is strong in the speech wielded by priest, physician, magician, is allied to the forms of poetry.

[Jacob Grimm, "Teutonic Mythology" (transl. Stallybrass), 1883]

c.1300, "to recite or cast a magic spell," from Old French charmer (13c.) "to enchant, to fill (someone) with desire (for something); to protect, cure, treat; to maltreat, harm," from Late Latin carminare, from Latin carmen (see charm (n.)). In Old French used alike of magical and non-magical activity. In English, "to win over by treating pleasingly, delight" from mid-15c. Related: Charmed; charming. Charmed (short for I am charmed) as a conventional reply to a greeting or meeting is attested by 1825.

Etymology 1 n. 1 An object, act or words believed to have magic power. 2 The ability to persuade, delight or arouse admiration; often constructed in the plural. 3 (context physics English) A quantum number of hadron determined by the quantity of charm quark. 4 A small trinket on a bracelet or chain, etc., traditionally supposed to confer luck upon the wearer. vb. (senseid en seduce, entrance or fascinate)To seduce, persuade or fascinate someone or something. Etymology 2

n. 1 The mixed sound of many voices, especially of birds or children. 2 A flock, group (especially of finch).

1. n. attractiveness that interests or pleases or stimulates; "his smile was part of his appeal to her" [syn: appeal, appealingness]

2. a verbal formula believed to have magical force; "he whispered a spell as he moved his hands"; "inscribed around its base is a charm in Balinese" [syn: spell, magic spell]

3. something believed to bring good luck [syn: good luck charm]

1. v. attract; cause to be enamored; "She captured all the men's hearts" [syn: capture, enamour, trance, catch, becharm, enamor, captivate, beguile, fascinate, bewitch, entrance, enchant]

2. control by magic spells, as by practicing witchcraft [syn: becharm]

3. protect through supernatural powers or charms

4. induce into action by using one's charm; "She charmed him into giving her all his money" [syn: influence, tempt]

Charm or charms, or The Charm, originally from Latin ("song"), may refer to:

Charm (symbol C) is a flavour quantum number representing the difference between the number of charm quarks and charm antiquarks that are present in a particle:

$$C = n_\text{c} - n_{\mathrm{\bar{c}}}.\$$

By convention, the sign of flavour quantum numbers agree with the sign of the electric charge carried by the quark of corresponding flavour. The charm quark, which carries an electric charge (Q) of +, therefore carries a charm of +1. The charm antiquarks have the opposite charge , and flavour quantum numbers .

As with any flavour-related quantum numbers, charm is preserved under strong and electromagnetic interaction, but not under weak interaction (see CKM matrix). For first-order weak decays, that is processes involving only one quark decay, charm can only vary by 1 . Since first-order processes are more common than second-order processes (involving two quark decays), this can be used as an approximate " selection rule" for weak decays.

Charm is the critically acclaimed third studio album from American rapper/ record producer Danny! (see 2006 in music) and the first of his records to be released commercially. As evidenced in the title, Charm was a huge milestone in Danny!'s career; after two unsuccessful attempts to make a name for himself in the music world (2004's The College Kicked-Out and 2005's F.O.O.D.), the record unanimously won rave reviews, culminating in the inclusion of the album on the 49th Annual Grammy Awards short list and, eventually, a record deal with Definitive Jux Records.

Widely regarded as one of the strongest entries in his discography (rivaled by 2008's And I Love H.E.R.), Charm helped Danny! achieve a moderate buzz in the underground hip-hop community and become South Carolina's most heralded hip-hop artist to date. The song "Cafe Surreal" from this album would go on to become a signature tune in commercial bumpers for the MTV early morning video countdown program aMTV, being played since its pilot in early 2009, and was also featured in a 2013 ad campaign for Crown Royal.

Charm is a computer programming language devised in the early 1990s with similarities to the RTL/2, Pascal and C languages in addition to containing some unique features of its own. The Charm language is defined by a context-free grammar amenable to being processed by recursive descent parser as described in seminal books on compiler design.

A set of Charm tools including a compiler, assembler and linker released for the Acorn market has been reviewed in Acorn User magazine under the category of programming software. Charm reworked for RISC OS platforms has subsequently been reviewed in Archive magazine.

Charm is further described in the e-book Programming in Charm on the Raspberry Pi.