[the_old_crowd] Re: HBP spoiler(ish): Hor-thingies: etymology

[Richard]

At 00:25 18/07/05 , Amanda Geist wrote:

<snip my exposition>

>No, no, this makes immediate sense to me. Horcrux = hors (outside)
>crux (soul). The outside soul. The part stored out there. As opposed
>to the inside soul, the part you still have.

Yes, but the Horcrux is the container, not the soul itself (or part 
thereof). Sluggy himself provides the definition: "A Horcrux is the word 
used for an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul." (UK 
p. 464).

It therefore doesn't make sense for its name to be based on any kind of 
"outside"; "inside": "horreum" (place of storage) seems to fit the bill 
perfectly (despite the double R).

My issue remains with JKR's massive leap of anti-etymology in making "crux" 
mean soul. OK, the dictionary might offer "central point or feature", but 
from there to "soul" is, as I said before, a huge leap. Why not build a 
word on the perfectly adaptable Latin/Greek "anima", or even Greek 
alternative "psyche"? (the latter would have had readers confusing it with 
"psycho" in its modern tabloid sense, which I think would've been fun).

I'm not entirely sure if what pisses me off most is that I couldn't guess 
it, that I lost the best part of an hour thinking about it - time which 
would've been better spent reading, or that it simply doesn't make sense.

Whichever is true, it certainly is a major irritant with me. And it's a 
silly portmanteau word to boot.