Dumbledore

[ginnysthe1]

No: HPFGUIDX 116487


Dungrollin wrote:  

>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.<

Kim here:

I know where I come from in the US, we have little shiny brownish 
black beetles called "June bugs."   Not sure if they are related in 
any way to your May bugs.  I'm going to look it up though, as you 
suggested.  (Off topic slightly, I've grown to love lots of 
different "bugs" lately, especially dragonflies and the 17 year 
cicadas of recent US infamy -- will have to invest in a real insect 
guide one of these days!)

Dungrollin continued:

>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.     [signed] Dungrollin<<

Kim again:  Very interesting.  Now that would be one way to keep 
people away from him and thus from discovering who he really is, not 
to mention possibly keeping Crookshanks from eating him -- 
Dumbledore's a dung beetle!  Also, I guess that's the key to your 
HP4GU nome de plume??  What an interesting crowd on this list --
entomologists and everything!

Kim