Ennervate & Innervate

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 123145


Geoff wrote:
<snip>
> > The prefix "en-" to me implies an expansion rather than a 
> > contraction - "enfranchise" and "ennoble" spring to mind.
> > 
> > And, as I pointed out yesterday, the Bloomsbury edition do use the 
> > correctly spelt "Enervate" with only one "n".
> > 
> > Geoff 
> > (having a pedantic moment)
> 
> bboyminn:
> 
> Certainly, Innervate is not a common word, I don't think I've ever
> heard any one use it in speaking or writing in my entire
substantially long life. <snip>

> Sure enough, I stumbled across 'innervate'. When the words are so
> close in sound, using an 'E' instead of an 'I' would be a common
> mistake. Also, one could subconsciously compound the mistake by
making an association between the 'en' in ennervate and the 'en' in
energy. 
> 
> As I said before, given that JKR makes up words, and that these
> particular words are somewhat obscure, I can see how the Editors
> missed it.
> 
> As far as the Bloomsbury editions using 'enervate' with one 'N', I
> suspect that was a Auto-Spell Checker correction. An editor running
an initial spell check may have taken it for a spelling error, whereas
> the US Scholastic editors may have left it 'as is' assuming it was a
> made up word.
> 
> Regardless of all that, I still think the correct word is
'Innervate'. <snip>
 


Carol:
I agree with Steve that the American edition is correct (the editor
left JKR's spelling alone and the British editor miscorrected it), and
I agree with Geoff that en- means "to put into" (so the stunned
persons's nerves are awakened or put into an alert state). The "n" is
correctly doubled in JKR's made-up word because the root "nerv-"
starts with an "n" (like "noble" in "ennoble," Geoff's excellent
example.) "Enervate" is clearly an editing error, one that JKR could
easily have missed when she read the copyedited manuscript or the page
proofs, especially if she trusts her editor's spelling to be better
than her own. (It should have been queried and the correct spelling
placed on a Style Sheet for the proofreader and typesetter. Remember
the editors who tried to change Tolkien's "Dwarves" to "dwarfs"?)

At any rate, I'm pretty sure that "ennervate" is right and "enervate,"
despite being a real word, is wrong. And Steve's "innervate" would be
wrong, too, for the same reason, since it would suggest taking the
nerves out of their alert state, which has already happened through
the stunning spell. Maybe "ennervate" should be "renervate"--also made
up but perhaps a bit more self-explanatory.

A spell that strikes me as just plain wrong, as "Ennervate" apparently
struck Steve, is the disillusionment spell that the Advance Guard
places on Harry in OoP. Surely Harry is "illusioned" when he's made to
blend into his surroundings like a chameleon and "*dis*illusioned"
when the camouflage is removed? But I think that JKR sacrificed logic
for a pun; she wanted Mad-Eye Moody (IIRC) to say that he was
disillusioning Harry so that both he and the reader would think for a
moment that meant rob him of his illusions about someone or something
that he had idealized. BTW, disillusion literally means disenchant, so
that would mean removing rather than placing the spell. Sorry I didn't
take the time to recheck the passage, but I think I remember it correctly.

Carol, who thinks that automatic spell checkers should be banned from
the publishing industry (and freshman composition classes)