Four Humours and Snivellus again

[ornadv]

No: HPFGUIDX 144291

>Valky:
>I'd just like to make a correction on the general british english 
>use of snivel. here is the entries from the two leading british 
>english  dictionaries -

>Cambridge -
>snivel
>to cry slightly in a way that is weak and does not make other people
>feel sympathy for you:

>Especially in the time of the Marauders which would have been some 
>20 or so years ago, the word sniveller had a meaning far removed 
>from it's roots in old english as a word for mucus.

Orna:
That's very interesting. I have been reading Snivellus until now 
just as another greasy adjective relating to Snape's abnormally big 
nose
But now that you say it, I remember Harry breaking into Snape's 
memory visualizing him in great misery, and I wonder whether Snape 
as a teenager has been crying sometimes in front of his peers, 
against his will, when he was hurt thus "wearing his heart on the 
sleeve" only to be ridiculed for it. It would explain some of his 
attitude against emotionality, and also could be a strong incentive 
for him to practice occlumency. 


Orna, trying to reconstruct Snape's childhood