A midget in glasses,

[lavaluvn <gansecki@hawaii.edu>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51032

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Falcon" <falcon21 at f...> wrote:
> 
Mathematical or not, when "mean" is used in conjunction 
with "stature" it is describing a person's average height. The 
context is that she is talking about his physical description. "Mean" 
when used to describe someone refers to their average size. It don't 
matter how much you disagree with it, that's the way it is. Sorry to 
be like this, but it seems like no one is willing to let the boy 
grow. Most want him to remain short and skinny, when his father was 
tall, so he could very well get tall. I don't know what the British 
consider average height, maybe someone could enlighten us. I see Ron 
as around 6 feet tall, and Harry is probably between 5 feet 7 inches, 
and 6 feet tall. That's about average.
> 

Me:

No, no, no, no absolutely not.  "Mean" as a statistical term refers 
to a POPULATION.  E.g., the mean height of 14 year old boys is 5'3" 
(or whatever).  One person's height is not a population.  Harry is a 
certain height at any given time,  you can't talk about HIS mean 
height, unless you want to average it over several years/months, 
which wouldn't make any sense.  "Mean" as a literary adjective 
usually does give the sense of small/ stingy.  A mean serving of 
gruel for the starving orphans, his mean stature.  It is a little old 
fashioned, but common enough to be recognizable.  In fact, the old 
Webster's I just grabbed to double-check my rant has for the first 
definition of mean: "humble in rank or birth, stingy, etc".  Thus 
Ron's joke about the midget in glasses.

 I think Harry has yet to hit his growth spurt and when he does, we 
will know for sure ("Harry seemed to have shot up over the summer and 
now towered over Hermione...").  We should expect it eventually; as 
you say, his father was also tall.

My 2 cents,
Dr.Cheryl