New Member and question

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 160655

Eddie:
> > Prophetic author? :-D
> >
> > Actually, lots of the names are puns: Professor Vector (a math
term) teach arithmancy, Professor Sprout (a vegetable) teaches
herbology, Peeves makes people peevish, etc.
> >
> > Too bad Lupin's name ruined the surprise, though. I think that
pun was a little too integral to the plot. <snip>
>
> Geoff:
> I didn't guess about Lupin. Why not? Because "lupin" is a flower.
The English word I associate with wolf-like qualities is "lupine". The
Latin word for wolf is "lupus" which i wouldn't immediately link to
"Lupin" because I never discoursed at length about wolves in my Latin
lessons.
> :-)
>
> As I have often remarked in the past JKR has a whole raft of punning
> names. Examples are Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, Umbridge,
> Grimmauld, Durmstrang, Hogwarts and fascinating new meaning for
> Apparition and Disillusion.
>
Carol responds:
I had the same reaction to Lupin, associating the name with the flower
because of the pronunciation (despite suspicions about him that
weren't quite on target) even though in the U.S. the flower name is
spelled "lupine." It grows in the hills around Flagstaff, where I grew
up, and along the roadsides in Tucson (where I live now) in February
through April. I've never seen it in a garden; it's a wildflower in
this part of the world:

http://randyelrod.typepad.com/photos/colorado_trip/lupine.jpg

I noticed the punning names of the textbook authors on my very first
reading of Book 1: "Magical Drafts and Potions" by Arsenius Jigger,
for example. (A jigger, of course, is a measure for mixing drinks--a
joke that most eleven-year0olds are unlikely to catch.) My favorite
JKR pun is the griffin door knocker (Gryffindor knocker); my least
favorite is the Disillusionment Charm because it's backwards. Yes,
it's cute to have Mad-Eye say that he's going to "disillusion" Harry,
but he's really "illusioning" him--creating the illusion that he's
part of the furniture. "Disillusion" ought to refer to the removal of
the spell.

Still, the wordplay is one of the continuing pleasures of the books.
(I almost forgot to mention that when I first read the name Sprout, I
didn't think of Brussels sprouts, the vegetable, but of bean sprouts
and other health food greens that you see in salad bars--little
seedling plants like Professor Sprout no doubt has in her greenhouses
though I doubt that she eats them.)

Carol, wondering what kind of parents would name their child Fenrir
(after an evil wolf in Norse mythology) and whether the name Greyback
indicates that the father, at least, was already a werewolf