Voldemort and language

[Neil Ward]

No: HPFGUIDX 6776

Re 'Voldemort' origins: 

I know this is getting pretty obscure, but the word 'mort' (with the 't' sounded) exists in the English language.  It's a hunting term - a noun - meaning "a note sounded when the quarry is killed".  The origin, according to the OEnD, is "Middle English from Old French from Latin: mors mortis".  

French used to be widely spoken in England in the C11 to C14, so some words of French origin would have entered the English language very early on and been subject to alteration, over generations of more common use, to sound more 'English'.  I think this explains why British English treats some words that are clearly of French origin as if they were English words.    

When I first read 'Voldemort' I did consider pronouncing it without the 't', but plumped for leaving the 't' in.  There was absolutely no logic to this, because at that stage I had no idea that it was an anagram of Tom Marvolo Riddle or that the wizarding world would have a vaguely Mediaeval feel with Latin-sounding phrases serving as spells.  I guess I was just being British :)

Neil  

_____________________________________

Flying-Ford-Anglia

"Ron, full of turkey and cake and with nothing 
mysterious to bother him, fell asleep almost 
as soon as he'd drawn the curtains of his
four-poster."

[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]