Dumbledore

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 116485


Kim
> I recall others on the list coming up with the idea of Dumbledore 
> possibly having the intrinsic ability to become a bumblebee (i.e. 
> his animagus), especially since that's what "Dumbledore" means.  
<snip>
Or maybe DD isn't a 
> bee, but some other bug (such as Rita "Skeeter" was a beetle, not 
> a mosquito).  

I've been wondering when I'd get a chance to slip in this snippet of 
information...

Dumbledore isn't only a dialect word for bumblebee.  It's also an 
old name for cockchafer or May bug, (goodness only knows what that 
would be in US English - try entering 'Melolontha' into google 
images), moderately-sized brownish beetles.  

More amusingly, it's also an old name for dor beetles, which are big 
shiny black dung beetles (try 'Geotrupes' in google images).

I got *terribly* excited when I first read PS, thinking 'Hooray! The 
Headmaster's a dung beetle!' But then JKR said in an interview that 
he was named that because it's a word for bumble bee, and I felt 
like a punctured lilo...

Oh well.

Dungrollin