1. adj. As yet unexplained, or
too complicated to explain; compare automagically
and (Arthur C.) Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable from magic.
TTY echoing is
controlled by a large number of magic bits.
This routine
magically computes the parity of an 8-bit byte in three
instructions.
2. adj. Characteristic of something that works although no one really understands why (this is especially called black magic).
3. n. [Stanford] A feature not generally publicized that allows something otherwise impossible, or a feature formerly in that category but now unveiled.
4. n. The ultimate goal of all
engineering & development, elegance in the extreme; from the first
corollary to Clarke's Third Law: Any technology distinguishable from
magic is insufficiently advanced
.
Parodies playing on these senses of the term abound; some have made their way into serious documentation, as when a MAGIC directive was described in the Control Card Reference for GCOS c.1978. For more about hackish ‘magic’, see Appendix A. Compare black magic, wizardly, deep magic, heavy wizardry.