bonus genius

English

Etymology

Latin, literally "good spirit".

Noun

bonus genius

  1. A small wooden doll that is covered with a cape and made to vanish as part of a magic trick.
    • 1967, Henry Mayhew, London labour and the London poor:
      I'd pull out my cards and card-boxes, and the bonus genius or the wooden doll, and then I'd spread a nice clean cloth (which I always carried with me) on the table, and then I'd go to work.
    • 1979, Charles J. Pecor, The craft of magic: easy-to-learn illusions for spectacular performances:
      The trick of the little figure that vanishes, the Bonus Genius, as it was called, can be traced back to the seventeenth century, when this trick was recorded in one of the earliest magic books […]
  2. (obsolete) A good spirit or angel, seen as influencing a person's decisions etc.
    Antonym: malus genius

References
  • An explanation of the trick:
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