'harry potter,' latin and me

in the few weeks before finals when solid food gets replaced with red bull and full nights of sleep get replaced with power naps taken between 3 and 5 a.m., the idea to flee civilization and abandon all responsibilities suddenly seems more appealing than ever. if you're like me, you wish you could go to hogwarts because there, at the very least, you can do magic.

i started reading the harry potter books before i hit middle school; i remember wishing jk rowling would write a sequel to 'harry potter and the sorcerer's stone.' like any other kid, i wished i was a wizard, so of course i knew all the spells and everything better than i knew... whatever it is you're supposed to learn in the 5th grade. what i didn't realize was that all those spells actually mean something. by memorizing all those spells and what they did, i was actually learning a tiny bit of latin.

for example, 'alohamora,' one of the first spells harry learns, unlocks things. 'mora' in latin means 'obstacle,' which is kind of cool. 'colloportus,' the counteraction of 'alohamora,' magically locks a door. the latin word 'porta' means 'gate' or 'door.' the 'accio' spell, which summons items, literally translates in latin to 'to summon.' 'aparecium' causes invisible ink to become visible. 'appareo' in latin means 'to become visible or appear.' the confundus charm, 'confundo,' obviously confuses people, and in latin, literally means 'to confuse or disorient.' the 'expecto patronum' spell creates a patronus, which keeps dementors at bay and comes from the latin, meaning 'i await a protector.' 'expelliarmus,' a favorite disarming spell of harry's, comes from the latin 'expellere,' 'to expel' and 'arma,' meaning 'weapon of war.' the 'lumos' spell, which creates light, comes from 'lumen,' meaning 'light.'

i could go on forever, or at least until i run out of spells.

there are also other things like names derived from latin. professor remus lupin, a werewolf, gets his name from the word meaning 'wolflike.' 'sirius' is latin for 'dog,' and also the name of harry's animagus godfather who turns into a black dog at will. severus snape gets his name from the latin word for 'strict' or 'severe,' which anyone can agree is fitting.

it kind of makes me respect jk rowling even more as an author, actually thinking through all the details in her books so thoroughly. learning about how all these words are derived from latin also gives me just another way to procrastinate, so from the bottom of my heart, jk rowling, i thank you.