"Lapdog" and "snivel" (Was: James and Snape)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 114115

I (Carol) wrote:
> > As I keep on saying (but nobody seems to hear me), a lap dog is a>
small pet. <snipped by Valky>, the lap dog comment probably refers to
the earlier period--a little boy of about eleven who hangs around a
much older boy of sixteen or seventeen who treats him as a prodigy and
a pet.
> >
> 
Valky responded:
> Carol you must not have any close British descent because that is 
> the purely American definition.
> In British english the word Lapdog also applies to a person and with 
> quite different meaning.
> Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary:
> Definition
> lapdog (PERSON)   
> noun [C] DISAPPROVING
> someone who is willing to do anything that a more important person 
> tells them to do:

Carol replies:
Youch! That does mess up my theory to some degree. It also increases
the nastiness of Sirius's comment about tenfold. (I still think,
though, that he must be referring to the time when he, Severus and
Lucius Malfoy were in school together, so the age difference still
holds.) And for the record, my ancestors were almost all originally
British--one came on the "Mayflower," one came to Massachusetts only
to be hanged as a witch in 1692, and one chopped off the head of
Charles I before fleeing to America. (Of course there were other more
recent immigrants, all from England or Ireland, but I don't know
anything about them. I'm at least a fifth-generation American all
around--which evidently does present unexpected difficulties of
interpretation for the HP books, even though I have a PhD in
nineteenth-century British literature!)


Valky wrote: 
> and while I am at it I think its about time I let you all in on the 
> British meaning of snivel. Since so many american versions have been 
> quoted to contradict me when I argue that the derogatory term of 
> snivel in the language I, *and JKR* was raised into, *British 
> English*, is used to deride someone on their weakness and not 
> necessarily sensitivity. 
> Cambridge advanced Learners Dictionary:
> snivel   
> verb [I] -ll- or US USUALLY -l- 
> to cry slightly in a way that is weak and does not make other people 
> feel sympathy for you:
> He's sitting in his bedroom snivelling because he was told off for 
> not doing his homework.
> 
> snivelling, US USUALLY sniveling   
> adjective OLD-FASHIONED INFORMAL
> used to describe someone whom you do not like because they are weak 
> and unpleasant:
> That snivelling creep/coward!

Carol again:
I've never heard any American use "snivelling" in any sense. We might
use "sniffling" to mean that a kid needs to blow his nose but, well,
there's no way to say what he's doing instead without being
disgusting. And we might use it to mean "whimpering," which is more or
less the same as your "snivelling." So the young Sirius was calling
the young Severus a crybaby? (Needless to say, the name no longer
applies--if it ever did. Just another instance of Sirius's failure to
grow up.)

I bookmarked the "Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary" at 

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

even though it's for ESL/EFL students and I assure you, English is my
native tongue. Too bad it's the American variety!

Carol

P.S. Does anyone else know of any other good sites that we Americans
can use to translate Briticisms into Americanisms? I had some slang
sites bookmarked at one time but lost them. Thanks, C.