Full Moon - Italian Translation, what people have posted about names

[Catlady]

No: HPFGUIDX 17869

Moon wrote:
> All right, I've been lurking for a long time, but this topic will
> make me stay awake screaming any time. (snip)
> it's a common misconception that the full moon rises
> before sunset in the summer.  It doesn't...

Hey, Moon! It might be worth having you stay awake screaming in order to
have you posting. Oh, I guess that's selfish of me <g>.

I'm *sure* that I have seen the Moon in the blue daytime sky especially
on summer late afternoons.... What was I seeing?

Scott signed off:
> Who tried to go stargazing tonight but it was far to fuggy
> . (Did I use that right?) ;-)

"too" not "to" <g>
As I understand it, if the fog didn't smell bad, it wasn't fug.
Actually, I don't think I've ever heard 'fug' used outdoors. It seems to
be always a room that needs airing out.

Joywitch wrote:
> IIRC, the Italian cover of SS/PS has a giant mouse
> growing out of Harrys head,

I thought it was a Giant Mouse-shaped Hat. All I could think of was that
it referred to the six white mice that came from one of the Christmas
crackers and may have ended up as Mrs. Norris's Christmas dinner. Funny
hats came out of the crackers as well as gifts.

R. Craig wrote:
> Madam Pomfrey (snip) I think her name is a rather transparent
> portmanteau word, made from "comfrey" and "pomade".
> Comfrey (snip) Also called healing herb.

I think "Pomfrey" is an actual name that real people have, and JKR chose
it for its resemblance to "comfrey". I don't think the reference to
"pomade" was *consciously* intended, so I would use the phraseology that
the name has overtones rather than that it is a portmanteau. Because
'portmanteau' means to me that it is intentional. Her first name, Poppy,
is also a medicinal herb (opiates) and someone suggested that her
husband might be named Herb Pomfrey.

> And I see Snape as being related to "sneap" (to blast
> or blight with cold; to chide) and "snipe" (a contemptible person)
(jump cut to another post)
>  "Piton" is "pitne" = "python". Obviously, the translator chose to
> interpret "Snape" as a cross between "snake" and "snipe".
> Though I can see the argument that this  is another of JKR's
> portmanteaux, I'm not convinced.

JKR insists that she took the name Snape from a map. I don't see how she
could have been attracted to the sound of the name without being
reminded of 'snake' among the overtones.

I hadn't previously seen the spelling 'sneap' but because of you now I
learn that that was what Blaise was talking about in message #6985 on
the old list on  8/16/00
Subject: Names - Snape
     I was delighted to find that the word 'snape' actually has a
meaning beyond simply being a place-name (in that context it means a
boggy patch of ground). To snape someone means to rebuke or hurt them,
and a snape is a rebuke.
     It's an almost obsolete English dialectical word from the Norse, if
anyone cares.
     JKR really knows her stuff! A very suitable name for Severus.

I don't know 'snipe' as meaning 'a contemptible person'. I know 'snipe'
as a verb, maybe back-derived from 'sniper', that means --well, like
heckling -- not leading but constantly criticizing the leader's plans.
There is also the phrase 'snipe hunt', which is like 'wild goose chase'
except the (relative) old-timers deliberately trick the newcomers into
going on a snipe hunt.

>  "Wendelin" is a man's name!
> "Guendalina" is clearly female.

I think Wendelin is a female name, a spelling variant of Gwendolyn. (Or
possibly a feminized form of Waendel.)

Let me check the canon: "Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being burned
so much that she allowed herself to be caught no less than fortyseven
times in various disguises."

"She" allowed "herself" to be caught.

> Incidentally, I've never seen a name origin site comment
> on the name McGonagall, so here it is from a defunct site
> that I found off Google "Mc Gonigle is an Irish patronymic name,
> (snip) So her name is literally "descendant of high valor".  I love
JKR!

Someone told some list that McGonagall was the surname of some guy who
is widely believed to have been the worst poet ever in the English
language.

Catherine wrote:
> After all - just because her name is Scottish doesn't mean
> she was brought up in Scotland, does it?

She also wore a tartan dress robe in GoF, altho' that doesn't PROVE
anything.

Madhuri wrote:
> And I doubt whether Parvati is a Shaivite although she has
> a shaivite name, as her sister Padma has a Vaishnavite name.
> Although in my Vaishnavite family, my brother's middle name
> is a Shaivite one...

Thank you for being a first-hand source of information! Some people on
list have suggested that the surname Patil is more likely among Muslims
than among Hindus, which suggests that JKR just used some names of
people whom she had met rather than really studying South Asian names.







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