Thoughs on Wingardium Leviosa

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 42998

I'm always been a very strong defender of the intention-driven spells 
theory, which states that it is more imprtant what the wizard wants to 
do than what the spell actually says, which would explain why a general 
sounding spell can be directed so precisly as we've seen happen again 
and again in the books. Maybe the most clear example of this is the 
spell "Wingardium Leviosa", which we take to mean "levitate the 
feather" and that we see Harry and co. practicing in the chapter of the 
Troll in PS, and when later in the same chapter Ron uses it again to 
have a cudgel fall in the troll's head.

However, bboy_mn's post earlier today has made me think it from a new 
perspective. I've always asumed (and generaly in the list it has been 
asumed as well) that Ron was capable of using a spell meant to levitate 
feathers in the cudgel by sheer will power. 

However, there is another possibility that just occoured to me. We know 
that JKR isn't using real Latin for these spells. The Latin words 
coincide all right (most of the time), but it cannot be said the same 
about declinations (at least, that's as far as I've been able to follow 
Latin discussions in the list. They're not for the layman and I was at 
best an indiferent Latin student at school). If we assume that 
declinations mean nothing, but were selected by which sounded the best, 
there is another interpretation to the wingardium leviosa spell: "To 
levitate *like* a feather". 

After all, most of the spells we have seen are general, like accio, 
which brings something to the wizard. While Harry does use "accio 
firebolt" to help himself in the focusing, many of the accio spells 
we've seen are simple "accio"s without specific direction (check 
Molly's accio to the twins pockets). The same thing could happen in the 
case of Wingardium Leviosa: it's just a spell to make levitate, and the 
wizard has to center his will on the object that they want to levitate 
(a cudgel, in the case of Ron), but there is no need to change 
"Wingardium" to the object in question. They only use real feathers in 
class because their less dangerous than knives or desks, and the 
students can picture the effect easier (after all, it's not difficult 
to see a feather floating, while a chair floating in midair is more 
difficult to believe).

The only real trouble for the theory is the fact that "Wing-" is not 
Latin at all, but English pure and simple, and it definately looks out 
of place.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who doesn't know if he believes this theory, but that 
nontheless it's a good idea to contemplate.