Rowling's Knowledge (was: Two Plot Problems)

[geoff_bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 187628

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bart at ...> wrote:

Geoff:
> > Depends on how good Harry's Latin is. '-sempra' is merely a form of 'semper' 
> > = always or forever. Rictus is a fixed grin or grimace and 'Sectum-'is derived 
> > from the verb 'seco' = to cut. So the only real link between the two is a sense 
> > of continuous action.

Bart: 
> The point is that it also depends on how good J. K. Rowling's Latin 
> is. When trying to tie in what happens in the books to real world 
> knowledge, we have to remember that we are looking not at the current 
> state of knowledge, but the then current state of Rowling's knowledge. 

Geoff:
Not really, because I'm looking at it from Harry's point of view.

I studied Latin as far as O-level (the Fifth Year national exam at 
the time) and still have a reasonable grasp of it, and I believe that JKR 
may have done the same.

I felt that Harry, like me, possibly didn't notice the link that the two spells 
had the same suffix; I suspect that there are other spells in the Wizarding 
World which are similar.

After all, correct me if I'm wrong but I think the only other time Harry used
the 'Rictusempra' spell was in the duel with Draco and that was in COS - 
four years previously and there's been a lot of water under the bridge 
since then. He's had to deal with many more serious spells since then - I 
can't see him using 'Rictusempra' on Voldemort for example.
:-)