open sesame

English Phrase

Definition

open up (especially referring to doors)

Etymology

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!.