Book 7 Title - OED definitions

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 163123

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "amanitamuscaria1" 
<saraandra at ...> wrote:

> Hallows: sb (substantive) First entry, usually in plural hallows:
> 1. A holy personage, a saint (Little used after 1500, and now 
> preserved only in All-Hallows and its combinations.
> 2. In plural applied to the shrines or relics of saints; the gods of 
> the heathen or their shrines.
> 3. Hallow- in combinations (chiefly in Scotland) is used for All-
> Hallow- = All Saints'-, in Hallow-day, Hallow-e'en,Hallowmas, Hallow-
> tide; also hallow-fair, a fair or market held at Hallowmas; hallow-
> fire, a bonfire kindled on All-hallow-e'en, an ancient Celtic
> observance.

Geoff:
Having gone away for five days just as this topic 
surfaced, I'm trying to keep up to speed on a 
family computer 180 miles away from home and divorced 
from my HP and Tolkien books and my other sources of 
assistance.

On the subject of "Hallow", just enlarging on the 
comments above, the word can be a noun, a verb or an 
adjective.

We can dispense with the adjective since that is 
usually only found as "hallowed" and as a verb, 
"hallows" only occurs as a third person singular 
whereas the structure of the book title really only 
supports its use as a noun.

It is not a word which you would find thrown around 
idly in everyday conversation, except currently on 
HPFGU :-), but I would think that UK English speakers 
would only latch onto Hallowe'en or place names such 
as Allhallows-on-Sea if the matter was raised with 
them.

As has been often pointed out, Hallowe'en is a 
contraction of All Hallow's Eve - the night before 
All Hallows Day, better known as All Saints Day.

So usage might dictate that we are looking at deathly 
saints or a deathly place with conections to saints.  
So, will Harry be able to call on the help of now-
deceased wizards, perhaps through portraits or 
information left by them or will things come to an 
end at a place of historical wizarding significance?

It's a bit early to get too deeply into speculation; I 
think a number of people burnt their fingers over HBP 
this way but my gut feeling leans towards the latter 
scenario. 

The jury's going to be out for a long time, folks...