Potter pronunciation/meaning of names WAS:Re: Etymology...

[Charles Walker Jr]

No: HPFGUIDX 160807

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...>
wrote:

> No need to cringe. My high school Latin teacher would have had us
> pronounce "accio" (an actual Latin verb meaning "to summon") with two
> hard C's, exactly as Dan Radcliffe does in the GoF film.
>
> The Latin alphabet had no "K," which was added to the Latin-based
> English alphabet later to transliterate Kappa for certain words
> borrowed from Greek. To my knowledge, the "S" sound in Latin was
> always spelled "S," never "C." Hence, if there's a C in a Latin word
> word, it's a hard C.(Church Latin is influenced by Italian and does
> not represent the pronunciation of the ancient Romans as deduced from
> the available evidence.)
> <snip of the rest of the "accio derivation theory"

Charles:
I can accept your argument intelectually, but I fear it is actually an
emotional response for me, having been canalized in my pronunciation
by Stephen Fry's readings of the books. I am jealous though, that you
got to go to a high school where Latin was taught. I went to a high
school that was more or less just a support system for a football
team, if you know what I mean. I do feel, however that JKR doesn't
necessarily put *that* much into her Latin.

On a semi-related note, with all the etymology talk and the meaning of
names I jumped into looking up some things in the OED and other places
online, and came up with some fun stuff. Hermione, for instance
derives from Hermes, the greek messenger god. The really fun thing I
found for her is the word "Grangerize," defined in the OED as:To
illustrate (a book) by the addition of prints, engravings, etc.,
especially such as have been cut out of other books. So very fitting:
Hermione, the messenger who illustrates with stuff from books!

Inspired, I next looked for Riddle and came up with these from the OED:
riddle, n. 2. transf. Something which puzzles or perplexes; a
difficult or insoluble problem; a mystery.

 3. concr. A person or being whose nature or conduct is enigmatical.
Not much of a surprise there.

What got me were these for potter:
potter, v. 2. trans. To trouble, plague, perplex, worry, bother

3. intr. To meddle, interfere, esp. where one has no business; to
tamper (with)
Now "3" could just about sum up certain characters' feelings about
Harry, couldn't it?

But the best were these:
Argus 1. A mythological person fabled to have had a hundred eyes.
Hence, a very vigilant person, a watcher or guardian

filch, n. 3. One who filches or steals: a filcher.
May be more to a certain squib than meets the eye, do you think?

Charles, who had a lot of fun with this.