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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Replying to @dickydickypand1 @canpacinobox
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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Replying to @arthur_affect @dickydickypand1
More people should “google” things of which they have little understanding or knowledge and then misrepresent them to the public? That sounds about your level, yes.
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Replying to @canpacinobox @dickydickypand1
Sure, as opposed to just insisting that they're right without evidence and making an ass of themselves
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dickydickypand1
I provided evidence that you didn’t like, so you ignored it. I forgot how triggered Americans get when anything to do with French is mentioned
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Replying to @canpacinobox @dickydickypand1
When someone is writing a book in English, for an English-speaking audience, and uses an *English word* (which is what "enervate" is), it actually doesn't matter if the word looks similar to a French word with a different meaning
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dickydickypand1
Rowling actually uses a lot of French in her books.
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No, she really doesn't, in fact she makes a point of having French-speaking characters speak in an atrocious "French accent" eye-dialect for the sake of her presumed Anglophone audience
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dickydickypand1
Embarrassing. Off the top of my head: Voldemort, Gryffindor, Malfoy, pensieve, Lestrange (family motto: “toujours purs”).
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Replying to @canpacinobox @dickydickypand1
Yeah, so the fuck what That doesn't make using an ACTUAL ENGLISH WORD to mean the OPPOSITE OF WHAT THAT WORD MEANS somehow not a mistake Maybe her knowing the French word is the *explanation* for the mistake, it doesn't make her somehow secretly correct
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