Sectumsempra / ChapterDisc / Ogg&Pringle / lots more stuff

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 153059

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)" <catlady at ...> 
wrote:
>
> Zanooda wrote in
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/152630>:
> 
> << Most of the spells are based on Latin, and, if Harry knew it, he
> could have guessed what the words levicorpus and sectumsempra mean. I
> know I guessed, and I studied Latin very briefly and 25 years ago. >>
> 
> I never studied Latin but I like to look up word etymologies, so I
> knew that 'sect' is cut/separate (dissect, sectarian), so I thought
> 'Sectumsempra - for enemies' was a spell to make friends into enemies;
> young Sevvie might have liked to make James and Sirius hate each other
> ... Anyway, while strongly criticizing Harry for using a spell that he
> didn't know what it would do, I was just as surprised as Harry at what
> it did.

Geoff:
I have previously commented somewhere that my take on 'sectumsempra' was that it was 
derived from 'sectum' which is part of the verb 'seco' (= to cut) and 'semper' meaning 
'always' or 'forever' hinting that the spell creates permanent cuts.