[HPforGrownups] RE: Vol-de-mort (was SV: Re: pronunciations

[Aberforth's Goat]

No: HPFGUIDX 7042

>  In French, vol = flight or vol =  theft
>  This gives us the possibilities:
>  1)Flight from Death (he is striving for immortality)
>  2)Flight of Death (and where he lands, he kills someone)
>  3)Theft from Death (he is stealing immortality/life from death)
>  4)Theft of Death (by killing all those people, he is stealing
> Death's privilege of ending their lives at the appointed time)

My apologies if I've missed some relevant posts on this, but what about
"Vol" as a derivative of the latinate "volo." I think it's something like
*vouloir* in French, *vuolere* in Italian. I believe it could reasonably
drop the "u" in a construct word like Voldemort (compare to *volont* and
the like). (German has *wollen,* so I suppose the root is indoeuropean--or
as German speakers so charmingly put it, "indogermanisch.") Hence, Voldemort
is "Desire of Death" or "Death Wish." I have always just assumed that was
the derivation.

Or, of course, since "vol" is also an abbr. of volume, perhaps Voldemort
could be construed as "Volume of Death." <g,d&r>

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray)
http://profiles.yahoo.com/aberforths_goat