Avada Kedavra Meaning

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 84908

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:

> Geoff:

<snipped>
 
> > There are other examples in HP of possible misuse. The curses 
should, 
> > I think have a "-us" (Nominative) ending; Cruciatus, Imperius 
etc. 
> > whereas the command word is a Vocative; Crucio, Imperio etc.
> > 

<snipped>

Carol:
 
> My Latin is shaky, too, and it's been a very long time since I read
> any, but I was thinking that the -o in "Crucio," "Imperio," etc., 
was
> a verb ending indicating a first-person "doer," as in "amo" (I 
love).
> So "imperio" would be "I command." (A vocative is a noun or name 
used
> in direct address, e.g., "Brute" for "Brutus," which seems
> inappropriate here.) In any case, I think we're dealing with two
> different parts of speech here, nouns and verbs. In other words, the
> spoken form of the curse is a verb, the name of the curse is a 
noun. I
> agree that -em  looks like an accusative form, which seems odd, but
> -us in "Cruciatus" and "Imperius" is nominative, as we would 
expect. 


Geoff again:

My apologies. What I /meant/ to say re Crucio, Imperio etc. is that 
they are Imperatives - i.e. command words like "Jump!" or "Be 
silent!".

Where's the iron gone this time?

I suppose the use of Latin probably stems from the fact that, in days 
gone by, it was a language spoken by the well-educated, was of course 
also the language of the established Church and thus acted 
internationally as a "lingua franca" much as English does today.