Ennervate & Innervate and Birdies in the Sky (was Method- comm...)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 122692


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at y...> wrote:

> bboyminn:
> Innervate- in·ner·vate tr.v. in·ner·vat·ed, in·ner·vat·ing,
> in·ner·vates. 1. To supply (an organ or a body part) with nerves. 2.
> To stimulate (a nerve, muscle, or body part) to action.
>
>
> Also, Ennervate is the counter-curse to the Stunning Curse. It's the
> spell that wakes someone who is stunned. It wasn't the incantation
> that sent the 'ghostly bird' flying to Hagrid.
>
> The '...nerv...' aspect of, most likely, both these words is related
> to the word 'nerve'.
>
> I suspect the prefex 'En...' implies a contraction or containment
of,
> and 'In...' implies the expansion of. Therefore, 'En'-nerve would
be a
> deminishing of nerve energy or ability, and 'In'-nerve would imply
and
> expansion of nerve energy or ability. The suffix '..ate' would imply
> 'the immediate process of' as in communicate being 'the immediate
> process of' communing.
>
> Justifiable I think this should be corrected in all editions
> (Ennervate->Innervate), but I seriously doubt that it will be.

Geoff:
Interesting that I'd never come across innervate before. It is not
listed in the two modern dictionaries I often consult - Heinemans and
Readers' Digest Word Power but it is in my old Concise Oxford.

The prefix "en-" to me can also inply  an expansion rather than a
contraction - "enfranchise" and "ennoble" spring to mind - compared 
with "enervate" and "enfeeble" for example.

And, as I pointed out yesterday, the Bloomsbury edition do use the
correctly spelt "Enervate" with only one "n".

Geoff
(having a pedantic moment)