Magical word choices in "Harry Potter"

"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling has bewitched people of all ages with her boy wizard and the magical world he lives in. From the start of the series, it's been apparent that words play an important role in the novel. Spells depend on using the exact words (and pronunciation), Harry's archrival Lord Voldemort's name is really an anagram and the mysterious Mirror of Erised is really the Mirror of Desire - just reverse the letter order. While some of these word connections may be obvious, what many readers may not realize is the level of complexity and thoughtfulness that goes into nearly every name, place and spell in the books.

Rowling has a variety of styles that she uses in her naming. Some of her names will follow a theme, such as plant names. Several names are also based on names of small towns that Rowling has visited. Magical places, on the other hand, are commonly just clever word play. Spells tend to be based on Latin and Old English. On top of all of this, there are some interesting anagrams found in the books that may give clues to future events.

A flowery style

Rowling uses several themes in her naming, one of which is flowers and plants. Some of these are obvious - Lily Potter and her sister Petunia, for example, and Pansy Parkinson. There's also Fleur Delacour - although her name is also a combination of words, "fleur de la cour," which means literally means "flower of the court," or a noblewoman.

Not all these plant names are so blatant, though. There's Moaning Myrtle, whose name is really a play on the tree name "weeping willow," and Ms. Figg, whose name is derived from the fig tree. Rowling didn't just use plant names for people, though. Privet, as in Privet Drive, is a type of shrub. And most surprising of all, a hogwart is actually a type of lily.

One of Rowling's other themes is the use of star names for members of the Black family, the group of pure blood wizards that Harry's godfather Sirius is descended from. "Sirius" is the Dog Star, and the brightest star in the sky. Sirius Black's brother's name, Regulus, is the brightest star in the Leo constellation and Bellatrix is the "Amazon Star." Tonks' mother and Sirius' aunt, Andromeda, is named after a constellation in the north sky.

Some of the names in "Harry Potter" are taken from the names of small towns Rowling has been in. Dursley, the last name of Harry's non-magical relatives, is a small British town, and Snape, the last name of the potions teacher, is a village in Suffolk, English. Nearby London is the city of Flitwick, and in Australia is the town of Lockhart. Flitwick is a charms professor at Hogwarts, while Lockhart was a flamboyant Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Incidently, nearby the town of Lockhart is the town of Wagga Wagga, which explains the name of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf Professor Lockhart claimed to banish.

Wurdpley

Rowling likes to play around with words, combing or dividing them in such a way to make their origins unclear to the casual reader. While the majority of this wordplay is in English, she also occasionally uses French and other languages.

One of the prime examples this is Diagon Alley. Put the two words together, and you get "diagonally." Similarly, Diagon Alley's neighboring shopping center, Knockturn Alley, becomes "nocturnally," which suggests the shady dealings that go on in the area. Sirius's home, Grimmauld Place, splits up into "grim old place," an apt description of the setting.

The French wizarding school Beauxbatons is a combination of "beaux" and "batons", which respectively mean "handsome" and "wands," in French. Rowling has also admitted that Draco Malfoy's last name is another French combination - "mal foi," which means "bad faith." Most important, "Vole de mort," or Voldemort, means "flight from death" in French. Rowling has shown this to be a very accurate description of this dark wizard, as he is constantly trying to find ways to keep from dying.

Latinus Spellicus

Latin: language of the church, romance and now spells. Nearly all of the spells used in "Harry Potter" either are Latin or have clear Latin roots. A few examples are listed here:

Spell/Skill	Latin roots	Meaning
Accio [object] causes the object to come to you	accio	to call to, summon
Crucio - the Cruciatus Curse, causes immense pain	crucio	to torture
Expecto Patronum - produces a Patronus, which wards off dementors	expecto patronum	I expect a protector
Expelliarmus - causes whatever the victim is holding to fly out of their hands	expel [English] + arma	expel weapons
Imperio - the Imperius curse, puts you in command of victim	impero	to command
Incendio - creates a small fire	incendio	to set fire to
Legilimency - the art of reading minds	legere + mens	to read the mind
Occlumency - the art of creating a shield around your mind	ccculo + mens	to close off the mind
Reparo - fixes broken objects	reparo	to restore

Interestingly enough, the most dangerous spell in "Harry Potter," "Avada Kedavra," is not Latin in origin. It's Aramaic, taken from "avara kedavra" which means "I will destroy as I speak." (The common magic phrase "abracadabra" is also Aramaic in origin, meaning "I will create as I speak.")

Odds and Ends

Anagrams have already shown to be important to the books in the past, for example "I am Lord Voldemort" is an anagram of the wizard's given name, "Tom Marvolo Riddle." Because of this, Harry Potter fans have begun to try to find more secret anagrams. One of the most popular, according to MuggleNet.com, is for the wand store "Ollivander's." This name can be anagrammed into several different forms, including "Ronald Lives," or, controversially, "Ronald's Evil."

Rowling also likes to use alliteration in her names. Bellatrix Black, Cho Chang, Dudley Dursley, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Luna Lovegood, Peter Pettigrew, Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin - the list goes on.

Whatever the name or spell, it's almost certain that there's something magically special about it. Rowling is clever and has good control of multiple languages, so the next time a spell is used or a character is introduced, take note of it - there may be more to it than meets the eye.

Research was conducted using MuggleNet.com and The Nine Muses.