Occam's Razor: WAS A Germanicist Revolts WAS Re: Latin in Harry Potter

[jkusalavagemd]

No: HPFGUIDX 42638

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "lucky_kari" <lucky_kari at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "mrflynn6" <mrflynn6 at y...> wrote:
> > 
> 
> > Avada Kedavra-without spelling changes= to take away breath
> 
> Where do you get this translation? It's obviously corrupted Latin. 
> But breath is usually "animus" and several other words none of 
which 
> include "Kedavra" which doesn't look Latin. However "avada" seems 
to 
> mean "go out of" and "Kedavra" seems a corruption of the Latin-
> derived English word "cadaver." Therefore, "Avada Kedavra" is a 
> command for something to leave the body. The soul, to be precice 
ie. 
> death. 
> 
> 
> GulPlum
> >Grabbing Latin vocabulary out of the air without considering the 
> >grammar is a dangerous route to establishing false etymologies.
> 
> Yes. It's awfully tempting just to flip through a dictionary of a 
> language you don't know and try to derive things, but it's a lot 
> harder than it looks. And Latin is a very precice language. Thanks 
> for doing such a good job explaining "Arabella."  
> 
> Eileen

I quite agree with Eileen's observation about flipping through a 
dictionary.  I also think that some of the etymological speculation 
in this thread has been simply brilliant, but there is a far simpler 
explanation for the naming of the "Avada Kedavra" spell.  If one 
applies Occam's razor, one accepts that this simple explanation is 
likely the correct one.  The incantation is but a corruption of the 
magic words "abra cadabra" that any stage magician would utter to 
cover his sleight-of-hand.  It is as innately devoid of meaning as 
is "hocus pocus", simple rhymed nonsense syllables.  What I find 
clever is JKR's ability to evoke some meaning such as "have the 
cadaver" while maintaining the sound of "abra cadabra".

Haggridd