Harry potter word play

TARRY, POTHER and enjoy playing quizzes with anagrams and other types of word play based on the Harry Potter books.

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Last Updated Apr 08 2023 5:49 AM

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As Harry Potter and the Cursed Child dominates book sales and the play entertains London audiences night after night, we examine the sources and humor of spell names in the entire Harry Potter series.

Wordplay is an essential part of the legendary success of the Harry Potter series of novels by J.K. Rowling and the current success of the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne. This device is perhaps clearest in the names of the spells throughout the series, most of which incorporate forms of Latin roots. This is humor that is accessible to parents and that kids can grow into, as they grew up with the series itself.

Good examples of spells hiding Latin are the movement spells in The Prisoner of Azkaban:

Hermione whispered, «Mobiliarbus!» The Christmas tree beside their table rose a few inches off the ground, drifted sideways, and landed with a soft thump right in front of their table, hiding them from view.

This spell, which moves trees and only trees, incorporates part of the Latin for tree, arbor.

Later in the same novel, there is another movement spell:

He muttered, «Mobilcorpus.» As though invisible strings were tied to Snape’s wrists, neck and knees, he was pulled into a standing position, head still lolling unpleasantly, like a grotesque puppet.

Mobilcorpus, which moves people, contains the Latin for body, corpus.

There are also spells like Lumos (Latin Lumen, for a spell that produces light. Lumen can be found in English «illuminate»). Expelliarmus (Latin Expellere, «drive out, drive away» for a forceful spell which seeks to drive your opponent away) and Aguamenti (Latin Aqua or perhaps Spanish Agua for a spell that produces water), which further capitalize on foreign roots. In addition to Latin roots, there is at least one spell with a Greek source, Episkey, which fixes Harry’s broken nose in The Half-Blood Prince. This word is derived from Greek episkeu, which means «to repair.»

Two spells in particular, Orchideous and Riddikulus, have an extra layer of fun hidden within them. Orchideous is a spell that produces flowers, but with the name of the spell containing the word hideous, the result may not be such a nice looking bouquet. This kind of play-on-words is echoed in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, when a character demonstrates the Engorgement spell (Engorgio!) and another character responds, «Consider me engorgimpressed.» The Riddikulus spell makes something frightening (a Boggart) into something funny or amusing to the caster of the spell- Boggarts are defeated by laughing at them, so you have to get «rid» of them by making them «riddikulus.»

Keeping track of what these spells are called and what they do can be complicated business, and it’s possible that even the author, J.K. Rowling, got a little confused. In Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, the following occurs:

«My elf has been stunned.» Diggory raised his own wand, pointed it at Winky, and said «Enervate!» Winky stirred feebly, Her great brown eyes opened.

This would suggest that the enervate spell revives creatures. The only problem is that enervate is a very bad name for a reviving spell, because the word enervate means to impair and is from a Latin word, enervare, that meant «to weaken», which is a popular meaning of the English word as well. No one is sure if this spell name was something Rowling did on purpose or whether it was an oversight, but to avoid this confusion, Rowling has since changed the name of this spell, which is also cast in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, to «rennervate», the name of the spell now meaning «to energize.»

This isn’t the only time a spell name source has been mysterious. The unlocking spell, Alohomora was said to be from the West African Sidiki dialect and mean «friendly to thieves.» The problem with this is that Sidiki is a West African name and what was probably meant was Sikidy, a form of divination practiced in Madagascar, off the coast of Africa. The Malagasy language spoken in Madagascar does have a word Alohamora used in Sikidy, which means, among other things, «favorable to thieves.»

When J.K. Rowling created the magical universe of Harry Potter, she obviously saw the task of naming things, like the spells, not as a burden, but as an opportunity to enrich the world and expand its reach. Harry Potter devotees can talk for days about what it «means» that there is Latin and other muggle languages sprinkled throughout the spell names. For a casual reader, a detail like that can open up a previously hidden door and confirm that there is so much more to discover in Rowling’s magical universe.

Based on the mega-popular world and series of books, movies, plays, and more from the mind of JK Rowling, this Harry Potter Word Search from Word Search Battle is a fantastic fun-time activity for fans of the series.

Step into the Wizarding World of Hogwarts with three difficulties, Easy, Medium, and Hard, each of them with different amounts of words they will ask you to find from the jumble of letters. You can either download and print out these puzzles to play on paper or take your knowledge online to pit against your friends and other players.

Much like the hallways of Hogwarts, this puzzle changes on the regular. Every time you play, it generates a new puzzle, so you can keep testing your knowledge of all things Harry Potter.

• Play online or download and print
• Multiple difficulties to test your skills
• Challenge friends online or play alone
• Create your own avatar and username to track your best scores
• Find up to 23 words all related to Harry Potter, the books, and the movies

In the wizarding world of Harry Potter, it sometimes seems like every word is a twist on another phrase, or comes from a Latin root.

The Harry Potter universe is complex and complicated, magical and wonderful, dark and sorrowful. The Wizarding World is both uniquely brilliant and still inspired by the ordinary world. Language and history, in particular, had a part in creating the world readers and viewers came to love.

And authors love playing with language and seeing what new and inventive ways they can translate and convey information. From the first book until the last, J.K Rowling scattered wordplay throughout her writing — the best known, of course, being that ‘Diagon Alley’ is a play on the word ‘diagonally’.

Grimmauld Place

Number 12 Grimmauld Place is the Black family household. It was first introduced in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and continued to surprise fans with its interesting history. It was the home of Regulus Black, Sirius’s younger brother, and the person who found the Slytherin locket Horcrux.

It was where Harry, Ron, and Hermione hid for part of their Horcrux quest, and where Sirius Black was reminded of his ancestry. It was just as Rowling described it, a grim old place.

Knockturn Alley

Just as Diagon Alley was named using the word diagonally, Knockturn Alley was named from the word nocturnally. Knockturn Alley is described by Hagrid as a «dodgy place,» as it is associated with many shops devoted to the Dark Arts — so it makes sense that it would be a play on ‘nocturnally’, as in ‘related to the night’ or ‘active at night’.

Potions & Their Translations

Potions are potent and delicate things. Snape tells his Potions students that potion-making is a «subtle science and exact art.» And most of the time, their names are a good indication of their purpose. «Veritaserum,» is a powerful truth serum with a name derived from Latin origins; «veritas,» translates to «truth,» and «serum» which is a common word, of course. The lucky potion that is «Felix Felicis» is made of two words meaning happy, lucky, prosperous, and variations thereof.

Sirius Black

Sirius Black is an Animagus who takes the form of a black dog. His name reveals his Animagus form as «Sirius» is a star, in particular, it is the Dog Star or Alpha Canis Majoris in the Canis Major, Latin for «Great Dog» constellation. Sirius is known as being the brightest star in the night sky, which is quite fitting for the Black family member who despised his family and what they stood for.

Sirius dies when he falls through the veil between life and death, a connection to the Sirius star as it is believed to be the doorway of the afterlife and a path of souls. Most of the Black family names have connections to their story, predicting their temperaments, actions, and deaths.

The Knight Bus

The Knight Bus is first introduced in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban after Harry accidentally summons the magical vehicle during a fall. The Knight Bus comes to the aid of those who require it; those who need transportation other than Apparating, the Floo Network, Portkeys, or broomsticks. The words night and knight are homonyms, and a knight is someone who comes to the rescue, a savior.

Voldemort

Voldemort is an anagram of the name Tom Marvolo Riddle, created by Tom Riddle himself. This name just happens to mean something significant other than being a random string of letters that coincidentally fit together. The name Voldemort can be broken into three sounded parts of French origin. The word «Vol,» meaning «flight» or «theft,» while «de» means «of» or «from,» and «mort» means «death.» Voldemort tried to elude death by making Horcruxes.

Snape’s Words To Harry

«Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?» To most, these lines are a potion’s professor asking their student a question. But the real meaning of this question can be found by dissecting the meaning of the words. «Asphodel,» is a type of Lily whose flower translation is associated with remembrance beyond the grave, while wormwood is associated with bitterness and grief. Therefore, Snape’s first words to Harry are «my regrets follow you to the grave,» and that he bitterly regrets Lily’s death.

Mirror Of Erised

The Mirror of Erised is a magical artifact that shows the subject looking into the mirror their heart’s desire. The word «Erised,» is the word «Desire,» spelled backward.

The inscription engraved around The Mirror head also reads «Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.» Using mirror-writing, the engraving translates to «I show not your face but your heart’s desire.»

Spells & Their Translations

It’s no surprise that many of the spells in the Wizarding World have literal meanings for what they do, their names finding origin from magical, mystical sounding historic languages. The summoning charm «Accio» is of Latin origin meaning «I summon.» The spell that extinguishes light is «Nox,» meaning «night» in Latin. Harry’s much-loved spell of choice «Expelliarmus,» takes «expello,» which is Latin for «I banish,» and «arma» meaning «weapons.» The extremely difficult «Expecto Patronum,» takes the word «expecto,» meaning «I wait,» and «patronus,» meaning «protector/guardian.» The spell for water «Aquamenti,» is of «Aqua» meaning «water,» and «mentis» meaning «mind.»

Remus Lupin

It’s hard to think that Lupin had this name before he became a werewolf, but Rowling wrote his destiny, and a werewolf was he to be. The name «Remus» finds its origins in the ancient Roman tale of Remus and Romulus, two brothers raised by wolves. Remus’s father’s name is Lyall, meaning «wolf,» in Norse roots, meaning Remus was raised by a wolf. The name «Lupin» is of Latin roots meaning «wolf.»

NEXT: Harry Potter: 10 Mistakes JK Rowling Made In The Chamber Of Secrets Book