OOP: Narcissa by any other name would smell horrible!

[M. J. Pascual]

No: HPFGUIDX 65946

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Susan Smith"
<atroposgryffin at y...> wrote:

> Minor Spoilers
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> My apologies if I am repeating old posts.  With all of the
discussion 
> about the Black family tree and whose named after stars or not, I 
> looked up some basic names on the net to find:

Having studied some Classics in university, I must say that Rowling's
use of latin and historical/mythological derivatives is easily one
of my favourite aspects of the books.

Some of my observations to your list:

> Sirius-means scorching-is the single brightest star and one of the 
> closest stars

Also the Roman name for the star then known as the 'Dog Star'.

> Regulus - means Prince or heart of the lion-is the 25th brightest
star

Meaning prince, petty king or lesser ruler of some kind.  Also the 
name of a Roman General in the First Punic War.

> Bellatrix -means warrioress, is the 22nd brightest star

Derived from 'Bellator' (the masculine version of the name), meaning
'war-like'.  The latin suffix -trix was used to replace -tor when
referring to a feminine agent.  Both names derive from 'bellum',
which is 'war'.

Ludo, which literally means 'I play' in latin.

Hermes, messenger of the gods.

Minerva, the goddess of wisdom.

Dolores Umbridge has been covered in recent posts.  Dolores, derived
from 'dolor', which has numerous meanings: pain, ache, sadness, grief,
indignation, resentment, chagrin.  Umbridge, I think, derives from
'umbra', which means anything from shade, shadow, ghost, darkness,
gloom, privacy, secrecy, cover.

Fun, fun!

--Mark