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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Replying to @arthur_affect
She wasn't, though. She was being paid many-million dollar advances to write entertaining books. If she wants to claim Latin is a corrupted form of the Sorceror's Tongue, similar in some ways but not identical, then she's not a mile from Tolkien's handling of Elvish.
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Replying to @BofingerDavid
Okay, fine I think her use of "Alohomora", to anyone who actually knows what it means and where it comes from (which is a regrettably small minority), is cringey and awkward as hell I think that that's a generally shitty thing to do to minority cultures from other countries
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Replying to @arthur_affect
The name" Alohomora" is used widely. Sieve out the HP and you're looking at genetics software. Sieve that and you're into horse racing. It's a tough search.
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Replying to @BofingerDavid
That's BECAUSE OF HARRY POTTER you disingenuous prick THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT
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Replying to @arthur_affect
You seem to assume the worst of people. I thought the existence of non-Malagasy, non-HP uses of the word was interesting and relevant, so I mentioned it. I don't know why you think I'm being disingenuous because I don't know what you think I'm trying to prove.
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Replying to @BofingerDavid
All of those uses of the word postdate the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1997 and are obviously based on that book's definition of "Alohomora" as "a spell that unlocks doors" That's my whole fucking point, it's what I meant by JKR "poisoning Google"
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Replying to @arthur_affect
Genetic linkage analysis software is obviously inspired by the spell meaning? How so? Nearly everything on the internet postdates 1997. I guess it's probably via HP since it's so popular. But it's hard to be certain.
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Replying to @BofingerDavid
Because they're all obviously drawing on the definition of "unlocking" something and that's a definition of the word JK Rowling completely made up
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Also it's pretty obvious because she's the one who fixed the spelling as "Alohomora", when you can find older sources they usually spell it "Alahamora" or "Alohamora" (she probably turned that second A into an O specifically to make it not say "aloha")
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