Because I'm petty, I'm going to gather you all around and tell you about that time JK Rowling was extremely wrong about something and, by being wrong about it, poisoned Google search results for it for years afterwards and generally made the world ignorant about it
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We all know that the spell names in Harry Potter are bad Because JK Rowling doesn't actually know any Latin and doesn't look it up, even when she was getting million-dollar advances to look it up So you get stuff like "Imperio!" ("To the empire!")
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But I'm not talking about that, or about how JKR thinks "Enervate" means the opposite of "Stupefy" when in fact it means the same thing No, I'm talking about one of the most obnoxious acts of appropriation in the series since the very beginning The Unlocking Charm, "Alohomora"
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Replying to @arthur_affect
Embarrassed for you. Rowling speaks French. In French, énerver can mean to excite or to agitate.
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Replying to @canpacinobox
Okay, and "enervate" isn't a French word, it's an English word I know she didn't major in English at university, but does she speak it
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Replying to @canpacinobox
It came from Latin, where it always had the meaning "to weaken", literally "to cut the sinews/nerves" https://www.etymonline.com/word/enervate
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Replying to @arthur_affect
Another etymological tip for you: French arose as a regional dialect of Latin and has obviously developed since. English absorbed many (Norman) French words after the conquest of 1066. English did not spring from Latin.
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Replying to @canpacinobox
Okay, and I just literally showed you an etymological dictionary saying the source was a direct borrowing from Latin in Middle English And that in all three of these languages the original meaning was "cut the sinews", i.e. "to weaken or to make collapse"
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Yes, I am in fact googling rather than going off the top of my head, because it's the 21st century and it's amazingly easy and convenient More people should do it
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i am still having a hard time following this dialogue "rowling misued 'enervate'" "no, she didn't. there's a similar word in french that means something different." was... was harry potter written in french and nobody told me?
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