Etymology of "Death Eater" (was Re: With enemies like these.....)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 117305


Alla earlier:
> 
> > > Thanks for the link and yes, Graveyeard scene did strike me as
being symbolic. So, does it mean that if Voldie and his followers eat>
some part of "death" (which part I wonder?), did they expect to 
> become immortal?

> Alla again:
> 
><snip> surely with JKR's love of names with meanings, the name of the 
> major evil in Potterverse bound to mean something,which should help 
> us uncover some key mysteries.
> 
> So, I do consider  it a possibility. Let's speculate a little 
> further. If "death eaters" indeed eat "death" in the real way, 
> whether Snape managed to put in the bottle or somebody else made 
> something "edible" or "drinkable" from death, <snip>

Carol responds:
Alla, I think you're on the right track and "eating death" does indeed
relate to Snape's ability to "put a stopper in death" (i.e., bottled
death that is not some mere poison that any wizard could make).
There's probably a link here to Snape's role in the DES. (Of course, I
also believe that he was brewing immortality potions for Voldy). The
idea of Death Eaters eating bottled death strikes me as some sort of
evil parody of the communion service in which Catholics,
Episcopalians, and various other Christian denominations (Lutherans?)
symbolically eat the body and blood of Christ to share in his
resurrection. Are the DEs eating Voldemort's death or their own?

You asked what part of death they eat. Maybe it's the middle part:
death - d -th = eat. Okay, that was a very, very bad joke! What did
you actually have in mind regarding "part of death"?

Carol, hoping the pun wasn't in horrible taste and didn't offend anybody