[HPforGrownups] Re: Ok. Questions, comment, and altogether musing brought out of SS!

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 2543

milz wrote:

> I think "smelt" has something to do with refining metal ore. IF so,
> then maybe "Smelting" is a place where one is supposed to be
> "refined", as in a finishing school?

Well, I finally looked it up. As I thought I recalled, a smelt (noun) is
"any of certain small food fishes which closely resemble the trout in
general structure. To smelt (verb) is to melt or fuse, as ore, usually to
separate the metal. And it's the past and past participle of "to smell," at
least in Britain where their strong verbs are not fading so rapidly as in
American English. So I suspect that with the fish and smelly connotations,
JKR picked it because having such a ridiculous word being treated with such
reverence by the Dursleys is funny.

--Amanda