Why does “open sesame” still sound like a password?

In “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” Ali Baba hides in a tree and hears the captain of the thieves say “open sesame” to unlock their cave. When the thieves ride off, Ali Baba says the words himself, and the door opens for him. His brother Cassim gets the word out of him and goes in alone, but forgets it and can’t get out. He tries “open barley” and every other grain he can think of, and the thieves find him stuck there. The door never asks who is speaking, only whether they know the word.

The phrase outgrew the story. By 1814 English had taken it in as a noun: an open sesame is anything that always gets you what you want. In 1969 it gave Sesame Street its name, chosen, the show’s creators said, because “open sesame” suggests “a street where neat stuff happens.” Ten years later the show’s Arabic version launched under the phrase itself: Iftah Ya Simsim, “open sesame.”