Why do Muggles get a capital letter?

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 37581

"... Weaver ..." <weaver at s...> wrote:

> Why are there 'Muggles' and 'wizards'?  Why not 'muggles' and 
wizards, or
>  Muggles and 'Wizards'?  Surely it makes more sense to be 
consistent?

<snip>

I don't think it has anything to do with English usage. What I 
suspect it has a lot to do with is intellectual property law (stand 
up Ms Stouffer) - note that almost all JKR-invented terminology or 
words with a specific meaning within the Potterverse are capitalised: 
Transfigure, Apparate, Muggle, etc, etc. 

It is much easier to establish special meaning (and thus trademarks) 
for capitalised words (the traditional use of capital initials 
relates to proper nouns) - using non-capitals means that the author 
is allowing non-specialist use. 

Note also that "wizard", "witch", or indeed "magic", don't get 
capital initials as these are words used in their standard English 
meaning. In this way, JKR is underlining the fact that capitalised 
words have a special meaning - e.g. Transfiguration isn't used in its 
Christian (Catholic) sense, but something slightly different, 
although related.