Nicknames

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 185587

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
>  Geoff:
> > Just in passing, it's p.539.

> > This doesn't deny the fact that the nickname exists. Someone has 
> > to be the first person to coin it. And, as I said in earlier posts, 
> > nicknames don't have to be flattering or friendly. Look at "Richard 
> > Crookback" for King Richard III for example.

> > Hence a nickname can be "an undeserved taunt by an enemy."

> Carol responds:
> I don't see how you can refer to "the 'fact' that it exists" at that
> point in the story. (SWM is another matter.)

Geoff:
But it exists as of that point. Obviously, one use doesn't make a 
nickname but it is implicit in the OOTP chapter that the Marauders 
know, and use, the name.

Carol:
> The taunt (I refuse to call it a nickname) did not exist until that 
> moment. Sirius, who *never saw Severus before that incident*, 
> made it up on the spot.

> Obviously, someone had to be the first to coin it, and *it happened at
> that moment*. I don't understand why you're having so much trouble
> understanding my point.

Geoff:
Likewise, I don't see why you're having trouble understanding /my/ point.
Whether you like it or not, the action in  OOTP which happened later than 
that detailed in DH shows that the epithet has stuck and has become a 
nickname. We know from "Snape's Worst Memory" that this has happened 
before we see how it arose in "The Prince's Tale". How it arose is, in my 
opinion, an irrelevancy.