JKR punning names (was: New Member and question)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 160686

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jdl3811220" <jlenox2004 at ...> wrote:
>
> > Geoff:
> > 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.
> 
> 
> OK, I got the pun on Diagon Alley (diagonally), Knockturn Alley
> (nocturnally) and Hogwarts (warthog) but Umbridge, Durmstrang and
> Grimmauld are puns how? I don't see it, it's probably staring me
> right in the face!! I'll probably feel REALLY stupid when it turns
> out to be something really simple and OBVIOUS! Ooooooooh!
> 
> Jenni from Alabama (feeling like an idiot right now)

Geoff:
Umbridge. A pun on the word "umbrage" = "to take offence over 
something".

Durmstrang. A spoonerism based on the German "Sturm und Drang" 
= "storm and stress", the name given to a literary movement around 
the time of Beethoven - late 18th/early 19th centuries,

Grimmauld Place = "grim old place".  "Auld" is  a Scots dialect word 
meaning "old" - best known to Sassenachs in the words of "Auld Lang 
Syne". Edinburgh is known to the Scots as "Auld Reekie" (Old smelly) - 
rather like the "Big Apple". JKR lives in Edinburgh. Have we a link here?

The other one I forgot but usually mention is "Pensieve" = "a device for 
storing memories" which is a play on words on "pensive" (thoughful).