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June 20, 2012

pensée

pensée \pahn-SEY\ , noun:
A reflection or thought.


One of the things I really loved about the Harry Potter series was the way J.K. Rowling cleverly turned a word or phrase, particularly about the spells ("Lumos" for light to come from a wand - "illuminate") and potions ("Veritaserum", a truth serum which is derived from Veritas, the Roman goddess of truth)  Then there were also main characters such as Professor Lupin, a werewolf (and lupine means wolf-like; the Latin term for wolf is "Canis lupus") or Harry's godfather Sirius Black (Sirius, the brightest star in the sky is also known as the dog star and Black could change into a dog). There are dozens more examples. (but you will have to read the books or see the movies if you haven't already)

This word was one I wasn't familiar with, but she used it for the Pensieve, the memory storage basin in Dumbledore's office and which featured prominently in several of the books, and particularly in the last part of the last book where Harry finds out the truth about Snape.

Yes, Rowling was very clever with these names and descriptions;  now she's rich!

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