open sesame

• open, 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!.

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open sesame

1. open up (especially referring to doors)

open sesame (plural open sesames)

1. Any successful means of achieving a result, especially means that are magical or technical, or otherwise beyond the understanding of most people.
   • 1899, William Wallace Cook, “Aquastor”, in Overland Monthly‎, page 15:

     "The blue topaz was bought by me, from the chieftain of the tribe to which Quacal belongs. It is an ‘open sesame’ to his favor."

   • 1905, John Ruskin, The Works of John Ruskin, page lv:

     He who can read a true book aright has an open sesame to audiences with the great and wise of all time.

   • 1963, William J. Palmer, Trial Tactics in California, page 57:

     Relevancy not always an open sesame having in mind the over-all authority and discretion of the trial judge.

   • 2001 September 24, Gareth McLean, “Sympathy for a devil”, in The Guardian:

     When Mussolini was a young chap, he dabbled with socialism, imagining it to be an open sesame to a better society.