it's a small thing, but I just noticed it. Diagon Alley, with alley abbreviated, becomes diagonal. I've been reading these books ever since I started reading (my entire life) and I only just picked up on that. D: It's cool, though.

i think JKR has mentioned this at some point in a random interview.

Kreacher?

Creature?

Took me the best part of 3 readings to get that...duh!

i had the Kreacher thing too.

and there was something else i never noticed, but i forgot it now...

I don't mean to be rude, but...so what? How is that significant?

Diagon Alley - diagonally
Pensieve - pensive
Grimmauld- grim old
Knockturn- nocturne

Many others of that sort. Others need some construction:

Gringotts: gots ta grin if ya gots da gold. Or, while money can't buy happiness, it can buy a grin or 12.

Quidditch: quid ($) in a ditch, money down a (rat)hole. Apparently, JKR is not a huge sports fan.

Of course, names signify:

Narcissa is a narcissist; Bellatrix is belligerent and Lupin is a wolf, of sorts.

Lockhart: lock heart, as in superficial git.

Malfoy: bad way. Mal is well-known (malevolence, maladroit, malignant). Foy derives from the French, voie, way or journey

Nocturne Alley = nocturnally

Flourish... has anyone here seen old style script handwriting?

Look at this Flourishes!

What did you need to remove excess ink from paper in quill based writing? Yeppers Blotter paper.

Flourish and Blotts: A Bookstore ...

Sirius (who's animagus form happens to be that of a dog): The star Sirius is also known as the 'dog star' (for it's position in the Canis Major (Big Dog) Constellation) and is the reason for the saying "The dog days of summer" (as the Greeks believed it's appearance at dawn heralded a hot and dry summer)

So she found it interesting. I noticed several other things along those lines as well. Such as the Kreacher one people have hit upon. I always found it intersting how some of the characters had perfectly normal names such as Harry and then you have Albus Dumbledore or Remus Lupin. Interesting doesn't neccessarily have to mean significant.

Well, it's significant to those that want to find meaning to the fascinating words Rowling came up with in her septology; however; whether or not names and meanings of names bring greater pleasure to the series as a whole, is up for grabs The street, and the name itself held a lot of meaning for me personally, and I experienced the same awe and wonderment Harry did upon his first time seeing it. "Diagon" does probably mean "diagonally" as in, a diagonal, and unseen world by the Muggles IMO.


I have the same feeling, GWG; and I've always found Albus' name fascinating, and perhaps misleading to the character's development as well. For me, his name was quite significant IMO and symbolic. Just as Harry did, I always thought Albus was infallible and his soul "white" and without blemish. However, by a good part of DH, that wasn't the case and Albus wasn't as "white" and untarnished as I was led on to believe (or I should say, as I was expertly led on by Rowling lol). However, great men make mistakes, and Dumbledore was no exception. He'll always be "white" to me; the great "White Champion" of Muggles.

The things you don't notice until others bring them to your attention. Thanks one and all

Regulus: Is Latin for "little king", and is also a first magnitude star in the constellation Leo.

Andromeda: In mythology is an Ethiopian princess, daughter of Cassiopea and the wife of Perseus. In current astronomy, it's a constellation between Pisces and Cassiopea.

No, I meant, what does the word "diagonal" have to do with Diagon Alley?

Kreacher = Creature, and Kreacher is a Creature

Knockturn Alley = Nocturnally, of darkness and night, like the shadowy Dark Magic that is sold there

Grimmauld = Grim Old, because #12 GP is both grim and old.

Diagon Alley = Diagonally, because...what? The street is crooked? What does the word diagonal have to do with Diagon Alley?

Interesting doesn't neccessarily have to mean significant. --George Weasley's Girlfriend

Well, but, yes it does, in this thread. All the other "plays on words and meanings of names" that we have been talking about here have significance. The name is a reference to a visual or utilitarian aspect of a place/thing, or an aspect of a person's character. Like, if "Sirius" meant "big fat tadpole," it would have no place on this thread, because "big fat tadpole," has nothing to do with Sirius' character, or his actions in the books. On the other hand, Pensieve = pensive, and pensive is what you are when you are using the Pensieve.



But, I don't understand, how does "diagonal" equate with "a world unseen by Muggles?" Diagonal just means, "a straight, oblique line that is not at right angles to the sides of a square," or, "connecting two nonadjacent corners of a plane figure." I suppose the latter could be reworded into "connecting two nonadjacent worlds," except, the wizarding world and the Muggle world are adjacent to each other. The two worlds don't run parallel to each other; they are constantly meeting at different vertices. In fact, it seems the two worlds are rather enmeshed and intertwined, which completely ruins the whole geometry metaphor, to me.

And anyway, Diagon Alley doesn't connect the Muggle world and the wizarding world at all: only wizards can see it. To Muggles, the Leaky Cauldron doesn't even exist. It can hardly be called a connection between two worlds, when the connection only runs one way (i.e., wizards have a connection into the Muggle world, but not vice-versa).

Diagonal, as opposed to orthogonal or diagonally, as opposed to orthogonally. Orthogonal is normative, Muggle; diagonal is non-orthogonal, non-Muggle. Orthogonal pertains to right angles, 90 degrees; diagonals register as anomalies (off-grid, so to speak).

Orthogonal projection, an engineering/map-making tool (think: graph paper), has, as a convention, all light rays at right angles to the picture plan. All lines are parallel, infinitely. This is widely used, in engineering, architecture, map-making, town-planning (e.g: midtown Manhattan and up). Orthogonality may be taken as the means by which the Muggle World progresses, for good or ill.

Orthogonal projection, whether 2D, as standard, or 3, isometric or axonometric, has the advantage of clarity, simplicity. It has the disadvantage of distortion. We truly don't see that way; light converges at our eye (not parallel) and objects in depth are foreshortened (also, not parallel). As it happens, many living things are best represented via polar projection...but, as usual, i digress.

Anyway:

Orthogonal projection misrepresents (oversimplifies) the world in order to manipulate it. Characteristically: the Dursleys of the Muggle World confuse media, orthogonality, with message, the world as it is. This is a common mistake, not limited to Muggles.

When Stan Shunpike sez: Muggles, they really don't see anything, do they...this is what he's talkin' 'bout.

Nice.

Peter Pettigrew: pettigrew is an oxymoron, of sorts. Petit, petty, peti: all go towards small; petti references undergarments, smaller than those over. Typically, living things grow larger in maturity. Peter did not, not in any way.

Referencing St. Peter, Rock o' the Church, li'l Petey was an entirely inadequate foundation stone.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have been trying to explain the whole Diagon Alley = diagonally thing to my friends forever and couldn't find a way that really made logical sense. They got the Knockturn Alley = nocturnally, ergo in the dark (arts) correlation, but Diagon just wasn't getting through. You are awesome Hannibal!

As for the Malfoy family - I know someone has already talked about Narcissa and their surname, but what about Lucius and Draco? Draco, I always assumed, was named after a constellation like the rest of Narcissa's family (the Blacks), but for some reason the only thing I could every think when I read Lucius' name was Lucifer. Any thoughts on that?

Well, Lucifer is sometimes associated with the devil but, as you may well know, it means 'light-bearer'. Lucius was a common Latin name in Ancient Rome. It literally means 'light' (a reference to his appearance?). There is an alternativee interpretation, that Lucius was derived from an Etruscan word meaning 'King'. Literally however, Lucius Malfoy's name would mean something like: 'Light bad/wrong way'.

Other names:

Argus (as in Argus Filch) was a God with a 100 eyes, whereas Filch is to steal (sneakily).

Minerva (McGonagall) is of course the goddess of wisdom and sometimes war in Roman mythology (Greek's referred to her as Pallas Athena). Furthermore, she is often depicted with an owl (owls being frequently used as symbols of wisdom, and of course, used as messengers in the WW).

Pomona is the ancient roman Goddess of fruit. Sprout means... well to sprout, as in produce buds... Nice name for a Herbology teacher anyway...

That'll do for now...

Considering how JKR modeled Voldemort (if you accept the allegory concept, he's models Satan), I don't think she'd want two primary devils in the series.

Speaking of Voldemort: Vol is French for flight, supposedly. Flight of Death? Sure brings the escape scene opening DH into focus.

Johann:

An interesting bit of trivia being that JKR majored in French at the University of Exeter. The name Voldemort is a combination of three French words:
"Vol" (theft),
"de" (of),
"mort" (death).

And, of course, Voldemort hoped to cheat death, defeat death, steal (thieve) from death, - yes, even fly from death; if you like -, by creating the Horcruxes (and by stealing the Philosopher's Stone, and by drinking the unicorn blood and by seeking out the Elder Wand). Smile




Laura

Laura,

Very cool and thanks. Can you imagine what Riddle saw in Harry's eyes as he cast that last spell? I can almost see Harry's blank eyes now: "I am Death. I have come for you."

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ETA:

What have I been thinking??? POTTER. Matthew 27. The Pharisees of NT Jerusalem bought the Potter's Field with the blood money paid Judas Iscariot. Harrys' parents are a payment of blood to win the right.

Johann,
during the Barnes and Noble Interview of March 19, 1999, JKR was asked, "Why did you name Harry Potter -- Harry Potter?" and she replied, "Because Harry is one of my favorite boy's names. But he had several different surnames before I chose Potter. Potter was the name of a brother and sister who I played with when I was very young. We were part of the same gang and I always liked that surname."

But I like YOUR explanation - considering that Jo is a self-professed Christian, and that I am a big fan of clever symbolism (especially when it's not in-your-face obvious) - way better! (Big Smile)






Laura

I love how there are so many references to stars and constellations.
Sirius, Andromeda, Bellatrix, Draco, Regulus...

There's also a star called Diadem...
" It has the traditional name Diadem. It is said to represent the crown worn by Queen Berenice. ...
During her husband's absence on an expedition to Syria, she dedicated her hair to Aphrodite for his safe return, and placed it in the temple of the goddess at Zephyrium. The hair having by some unknown means disappeared, Conon of Samos, explained the phenomenon in courtly phrase, by saying that it had been carried to the heavens and placed among the stars."
There's an obvious connection there, right??

Rēgulus is Latin for 'prince' or 'little king'. The Greek variant Basiliscus is also used, meaning 'the heart of the lion'.
(does this mean that at heart, Regulus was always a Gryffindor?)
The depth of JKR's research amazes me!

*Hermione was named after the character in Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale", though the two characters are nothing alike.

Also, Hermione is the first name of two separate British actresses who have both played witches (Hermione Baddely and Hermione Gingold).

I think the Blacks (and by extension the Malfoys) have by far the most interesting names.

*Draco Malfoy- Draco, as well as being a constellation, means 'dragon, or a large serpent' in Latin. Mal-foy means "bad faith" in French.

*Bellatrix (Black) Lestrange- Bellatrix is Latin for "female warrior"

*Sirius Black- As well as Sirius being the name of the Dog Star, the name Sirius could be derived from the Greek seirios, which means 'burning'.

*Cygnus Black- Cygnus means 'a male swan' in Latin. In Greek mythology, Cygnus was the king of the Ligurians, who was turned into a swan. Cygnus is also another name for the constellation called "The Northern Cross".

*Callidora (Black) Longbottom- Callidora is a parasite which preys on moths and butterflies. Callidora also means 'gift of beauty' in Greek.

*Charis (Black) Crouch- Charis means 'grace' or 'kindness' in Greek.

*Alphard Black- Alphard is a star in the heart of the Snake in the constellation Hydra- which has direct Slytherin connotations!

One of my favourites is Dolores Umbridge: "Dolor" = Latin for pain, sadness, grief, resentment.
Umbridge = homonym for the English word 'umbrage:' to take offense, from Latin "umbra" shade, shadow, ghost.
They hit the nail on the head there, I think!

In the US, early 19th C, road, canal and, shortly, rail construction was job #1, all towards linking new frontiers to existing markets. Most roads were tolled, developing present revenues to pay prior investors. At that time, the term shunpike came into common usage: meaning a road, path or trail used to circumvent toll booths.

Minerva - Roman counterpart of Athena; Goddess of wisdom.

Poppy Pomfrey - Poppy is the plant morphine, heroin and other narcotics come from

Sybil Trelawney - the Greek oracle at Delphi was staffed by a woman prophet named Sybil

Merope Gaunt - Merope was one of the seven Pleiades - sisters who were nymphs. Six of them married immortals, but Merope married a mortal man (Sisyphus). For that reason, she was the dimmest of the seven stars in the Plieades constellation. Consider this in light of blood purity.

Argus Filch - Argus was a watcher sent by Hera to look over Zeus' latest girlfriend, Io. He had 100 eyes and was put to sleep, one eye at a time, by Hermes. Argus was then transformed into a peacock. Anyway, a watcher or caretaker.

I can really see where Minerva, Merope, and Argus definatley came from. I really like the one about Merope because that one fits right to the T, man lol.

I especially like the name Knockturn because as well as sounding like 'nocturne', the word itself has always given me a feeling of something off the beaten path.



I love that! I had never heard of shunpikes before, but I think it fits well for Stan. Out of curiosity, where did you find that information? Or did you just know what a shunpike was?

I would love to post some more plays on words and such, but I don't know any that haven't already been pointed out.

What Hath God Wrought, the Transformation of America, 1815-1848
Daniel Walker Howe
Oxford University Press
2007

1 of 8 volumes in The Oxford History of the United States.

I doubt JKR got it there; in fact: considering Stan appeared way before the publish date, 2007, i'm sure she didn't. The part of the US opening (early, pre-Mexico) in the period which Howe treats (Ohio, Kentucky and the Gulf States) was settled, in large part, by the offspring of so-called border folk (North England/ South Scotland, aka Scot-Irish). I guess they brought the term with them; that JKR took it from that source (whatever it was). Alternatively: she made it up independently, shunpike being a fine fit wrt the Magic Bus.