etymology chat and Black Family Tree

Sun May 10 20:13:23 UTC 2009

Carol wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/39189>:

<< betting that JKR knew full well all the etymological implications of the word she chose for her torture spell >>

Thank you for answering. My computer is broken so I have to use Tim's computer and yesterday he was sulking beside me ('watching television') so I was too hurried to answer my question at the online etymology site (which on MY computer I have bookmarked). Today he is asleep. :)

On <http://www.etymonline.com/> I put crux in the search box and found a great many hits. Somem relevant ones:

Cross: O.E. cros, from O.Ir. cros, probably via Scand., from L. crux (gen. crucis) "stake, cross," orig. a tall, round pole, possibly of Phoenician origin. Replaced O.E. rood. 

crucify: c.1300, from O.Fr. crucifer, from V.L. *crucificare, from L.L. crucifigere "to fasten to a cross," from cruci, dat. of L. crux "cross" + figere "fasten" (see fix).

excruciate: 1570, from L. excruciatus, pp. of excruciare "to torture, torment," from ex- "out, thoroughly" + cruciare "cause pain or anguish to," lit. "crucify," from crux (gen. crucis) "cross."

cruicial: 1706, from Fr. crucial, a medical term for ligaments of the knee (which cross each other), from L. crux (gen. crucis) "cross." The meaning "decisive, critical" is extended from a logical term, Instantias Crucis, adopted by Francis Bacon (1620); the notion is of cross fingerboard signposts at forking roads, thus a requirement to choose.

cruise: 1651, from Du. kruisen "to cross, sail to and fro," from kruis "cross," from L. crux.

Carol wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/39191>:

<< I Googled "Lycoris," which I think is a lovely name. The
Lexicon says it's the name of a group of plants in the lily family(!), but another source says that it means "twilight," which I like much better. (Maybe those plants bloom at twilight?)
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Lycoris_Black >>

Thank you for pointing me to the Lexicon entry:

<< Lycoris means "twilight" in Greek. It is also a genus of flowering plants in the Amaryllis family that is associated with death and reincarnation in Chinese and Japanese folklore. Ovid and Virgil also mention a mistress of Mark Antony called Lycoris. It is also possible that this name was derived from the plant and sweet licorice. >>

I don't feel this little-known word for 'twilight' passes my smell test for being astronomical, but a meaning 'licorice' would pass as a name that means 'black'. Phineas means 'Nubian' and Nigellus is a Latin form of 'Neil' that was thought to mean 'black', so I was delighted with Rowling's cleverness at naming him 'black black Black'. When other listies posted their discovery of a tradition that Phineas is Hebrew for snake-head, that showed her even more clever. I wanted him to name his children in the same tradition, so I came up with Ciaran Cole for his son and Melanie Maura for his first daughter, but having been struggling for years with the name of his second daughter, maybe Kali, but what else? Maybe Lycoris Kali?

I followed the Lexicon's link to <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycoris_(genus)> and found that the flower has sad folk traditions:
<< Since these scarlet flowers usually bloom near cemeteries around the autumnal equinox, they are described in Chinese and Japanese translations of the Lotus Sutra as ominous flowers that grow in Diyu, or Huángquán, and guide the dead into the next reincarnation.

When the flowers of lycoris bloom, their leaves would have fallen; when their leaves grow, the flowers would have wilted. This habit gave rise to various legends. A famous one is the legend of two elves: Mañju, who guarded the flower, and Saka, who guarded the leaves. Out of curiosity, they defied their fate of guarding the herb alone, and managed to meet each other. At first sight, they fell in love with each other. God, exasperated by their waywardness, separated the miserable couple, and laid a curse on them as a punishment: the flowers of Mañju shall never meet the leaves of Saka again.

It was said that when the couple met after death in Diyu, they vowed to meet each other after reincarnation. However, neither of them could keep their words. >>

If Rowling knew this, she could have chosen the name Lycoris to go with a back story about why this character never married. Perhaps she fell in love with a man who didn't have one of those family tree tapestries to prove that he was a Pureblood, so in obedience to her family, she didn't marry him, but she didn't marry anyone else either.

<< Some other legends have it that when you see someone that you may never meet again, these flowers, also called red spider lilies, would bloom along the path. Perhaps because of these sorrowful legends, Japanese people often use these flowers in funerals. >>

A whole bunch of death-oriented customs, which, like 'twilight', fit with the decor theme of the Black House.