Harry Potter Words

"[T]he Deathly Hallows" is such a great title. I admit I didn't realize this until I looked up the world "hallows." Does that make me stupid? I have never been Catholic and I'm not sure. Whatever it says about me, it's a pleasure to read children's books where I don't know all of the words. Some others:

Kissing Gate -- "A small gate swinging in a U-or V-shaped enclosure, so as to allow only one person to pass at a time.'

Sea lavender -- A maritime plant with "papery funnel-shaped purple flowers on wiry leafless stems."

caterwauling -- Screaming like a cat in heat, with slang connotations I don't fully grasp. A "Caterwauling Charm" apparently is used to enforce a curfew.

matte -- As an adjective, a dull color without luster.

dittany -- A plant from Crete and Greece, "formerly supposed to have the power to expel weapons." Here, the Essence of Dittany is a potion for treating burns.

scarper -- To run away in a hurry. In J.K. Rowling's novels, people tend to scarper a lot.

Freshwater Plimpies -- Plimpies in fresh water. Reportedly, they make a good soup.

Comments

[nub]

i also noticed quite a few weighty words in the last book, but unfortunately didn't take the time to write them down. "kissing gate" would have been one of them.

surely you already knew what "caterwaul" and "matte" meant though. i mean, you've had photographic prints made, right? and they asked you if you wanted glossy or matte finish?

i believe the final book also contained J.K.'s first use of the british put-down "berk," which actually comes from cockney rhyming slang, and has a surprisingly vulgar etymology. (for the record, i first heard it used by giles on buffy.)

[nub]

meh, your blog software wouldn't let me embed this link for some reason:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/berk

what do plimpies look like??

[Avery Palmer]

Blimpies.