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

[Irene Mikhlin]

No: HPFGUIDX 42647

 "jkusalavagemd" wrote:

> --- 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. 

> 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.  

Wow, not every day you get to play Sherlock Holmes and say
"You are all wrong". :-)

Avada Kedavra sounded positively Semitic to me, so I looked it up
in the relevant dictionaries. Lo and behold, it's Arameic phrase,
meaning "let the thing be destroyed".

So not everything in Potterverse is based on Latin.

Irene