Etymology was: More Snaping

[rcraigharman at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 23017

--- In HPforGrownups at y...,   <morgan_793 at y...> wrote:
>  --- Tabouli <tabouli at u...> wrote concerning
> someone else's post which said: 
> 
> > "The word Dumbledore sounds like a contortion of 'bumblebee'
> 
> (objections snipped)
> 
> Actually, this idea is not as ill-formed as you seem to think.
> Dumbledore *is* extremely close to the Old English word for 
> bumblebee, oddly enough. The etymology might be intuitive, 
> but it's nigh well spot on. 
> 
> Oh, and by the way: hello, I'm new.

Hello and welcome, Morgan.

Actually, I think you'll find that Tabouli was critiquing 
Elizabeth D. Schaefer's book, "Exploring Harry Potter".

The criticism isn't necessarily with the etymology of Dumbledore,
but with most of the rest of the quoted paragraph, viz.:

"He also acts bumbling sometimes, and the words 'dumb, stumble,
fumble' and 'bore' can also be derived from his name, suggesting his
traits according to different points of view".

I suppose Schaefer could have gone on to say that, in Dumbledore's
presence, doors crumble, floors rumble, Moors grumble, and scores of
s'mores tumble.  The point is that nothing Dumbledore does in canon
truly evokes dumbness, stumbling, fumbling, or boredom.

It's a ludicrous "analysis" that makes one wonder whether Schaefer
really read or understood the texts.  Had I been a character in the
HP-verse, I can imagine getting a Schaefer treatment like this:

"Harman is very similar to 'harmony', suggesting irenic attitudes
toward others, and yet there is underlying conflict, since 'harm',
'arm', 'man', and even such terms as 'war-man', can be derived from
his name.  The overall imbalance in these traits might be reconciled
by the suggestive resemblance of the name to 'hormone'.  Perhaps the
overall restraint he puts on himself is linked to the Arabic 'haram',
forbidden, which still shows shades of 'harem'."

Ad nauseam.

It's that sort of meaningless riff that I think Tabouli was railing
against, and not the *legitimate* etymology of Dumbledore from
'dumbledor'....

....Craig, who finds the "Silente" gloss far more odious....