Blaise Zabini (Re: Male or Female)

[iris_ft]

No: HPFGUIDX 87814

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister"
> <gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
> > --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "kyntor70" 
<marcuscason at c...> 
> > wrote:
> > > I am trying to remember if JKR has ever specified Blaize 
Zambini's 
> > > sex?  I don't remember if she did, does anyone else?
> > > 
> > > Kyntor
> > 
> > Geoff:
> > As a former Maths teacher, my reaction would be that the pupil 
was 
> > male because my first thought is of Blaise Pascal whose name is 
> > remembered in such things as Pascal's Triangle among others.
> 
> 
> After waiting for someone else to look up the etymology, I did it
> myself. Here's what I found at 
http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/fre.html:
> 
> BLAISE   m   French
> Pronounced: BLAYZ
> From the Roman name Blasius which meant "lisping" from Latin 
blaesus.
> A famous bearer was Blaise Pascal, a mathematician and philosopher
> from France.
> 
> "Lisping," eh? Not a very formidable Slytherin. Wonder what Zabini 
(no
> M) means or implies?
> 
> Carol


Hi,

Of course, there's Blaise Pascal. But in French classic literature, 
Blaise is also a traditional name for valets. It's even a kind of 
cliché in our 19th century's literature. For example, you find it in 
Victor Hugo's famous play "Ruy Blas". "Blas" is the Spanish version 
of "Blaise". Hugo used it in combination with "Ruy", that comes 
from "Rodrigo", to name the main character of the play, a servant 
who becomes minister, and to show the hiatus between his humble 
condition (Blas the servant) and his noble soul (Rodrigo is 
traditionally a noble first name; in Spain it was the name of the 
Cid). 
But this is not a reply concerning old Uncle Hugo. So let's come 
back to "our" Blaise Zabini.
Not a very formidable Slytherin? Why not; after all, he's just a 
name in the series. But it's a very nice name for a Slytherin boy. 
There's in "Blaise Zabini" a nice lipsing alliteration : "ZZZZZ", 
and it's a very snake- like sound. 
By the way, Italian patronymics were also clichés in our 19th 
century' literature. You can't imagine how many traitors, 
conspirators, poisoners, swordmen
 have Italian patronymics in the 
novels by Alexandre Dumas and other romantic authors. It bothers me, 
as I'm myself half Venetian, but that's the way it is. Our romantic 
authors enjoyed clichés; they also enjoyed history and were 
fascinated by figures such as Catherine di Medici, Lorenzaccio, 
Concino Concini, Mazarini, etc

Well, dear Blaise Zabini, with a name like that, you could be a nice 
henchman in a novel by Alexandre Dumas (if you don't know who 
Alexandre Dumas is, ask Madam Pince for a copy of The Three 
Musketeers). And you definitely couldn't end in another house than 
Slytherin. 

Two Knuts,

Iris