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ravenna_c_tanThis essay is a brief look at some of the ways in which spell names are transformed into verbs and other vernacular forms in the Harry Potter books. "Verbing," as it is cutely named, is a common practise in spoken English, although verbed nouns are often counted as slang or nonstandard when they first appear, many eventually make it into the dictionaries because of their wide use. For example, a bus is a vehicle for transporting people. We now have the verb "to bus," meaning to transport people via bus. "They bused the students from the closed school to another facility."
By way of introduction to my background, I am a professional writer and editor, and my college degree is in Linguistics, so I think about this sort of thing a lot. I started looking into this when some other writers and I were chatting one night, and one of them thought my use of the made-up verb "Legilimise" was odd. I argued that J. K. Rowling herself set the precedent for the verbing of spell names, but I only recalled it being in dialogue, as if it could be slang or vernacular idiom. A look at the books tonight, though, shows that the narrative itself uses some forms, too.
Here are the data points I looked at tonight. I am using American editions, though my own spelling may be somewhat British since I'm just used to that when writing about HP. (Go figure.)
THE SUMMONING CHARMs, Accio
A Summoning Charm is spoken by the incantation "Accio ____" filling in whatever it is one is Summoning. It is correct to say someone Summoned something, but not that one "accioed" something. That construction does not appear anywhere I could find in the books, no doubt because the word Summon holds that place in the language. The words Summoning Charm and the usage of the verb are capitalised.
Page 92, DH: “Well . . . it was easy,” said Hermione in a small voice. “I just did a Summoning Charm. You know—Accio.
Page 165, DH: “Like Voldemort put on the stone basin in the cave,” said Harry, remembering how he had been unable to Summon the fake locket.
page 719, HBP: "But one of them jumped," [Harry] said, trying to make his voice as level and calm as Dumbledore's. "When I tried to Summon the Horcrux, a body leapt out of the lake."
THE KILLING CURSE, Avada Kedavra
Presumably is grammatically equivalent to The Summoning Charm, in that a common verb, "kill," can be used instead of an awkward construction like "I Avadakedavra-ed him."
THE IMPERIUS CURSE, Imperio
Imperius, on the other hand, does not have a common English language verb associated with it. The Imperius Curse is spoken by the incantation "Imperio!" It does not require a named target. In this case, JKR has established the verbing of the name into the word "Imperiused," in both character dialogue and in narrative. It is used both as a past tense verb form and as the adjectival form of the verb.
From dialogue:
"...She looked all funny when she said it. ... Oh no, oh no, I bet she'd been Imperiused and I didn't realize!" -- Leanne, Katie's friend, on page 316 of HBP
"Well, I know I pushed open the door," said Katie, "so I suppose whoever Imperiused me was standing just behind it." page 655, HBP
From narrative:
page 453 in DH:
He whispered urgently in Bogrod’s ear, but the Imperiused goblin shook him off.
page 628, in DH:
...the news now creeping in from every quarter as the morning drew on; that the Imperiused up and down the country had come back to themselves, that Death Eaters were fleeing or else being captured, that the innocent of Azkaban were being released...
THE CRUCIATUS CURSE, Crucio
Thus far I have found one example of Cruciatus being turned into a verb form.
Page 501 of DH, Amycus says, “What’ve they done, the little whelps?” he screamed. “I’ll Cruciate the lot of ’em till they tell me who did it—and what’s the Dark Lord going to say?”
One can argue that Amycus speaks crudely and is an idiot, but given the number of people (including the narrator) who used "Imperiused" I would say there is precedent. Note that it is "Cruciate" and not "I'll Crucio the lot."
THE STUNNING SPELLs, Stupefy
The verb "to Stun" gets used normally when referring to the use of this spell, capitalised to distinguish it from other sources of being stunned (like being stunned by bad news). This appears in nearly all the books where the spell is used.
From p 74, OotP: Mrs Weasley abandoned the attempt to close the curtains and hurried up and down the hall, Stunning all the other portraits with her wand
p 401, Ootp: "- we can practise in pairs," said Harry. "We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again."
p 550: 'Hurry, Filch, hurry!' shrieked Umbridge, 'they'll be all over the school unless we do something - Stupefy!'
then:
'Don't Stun them, Filch!' shouted Umbridge angrily, for all the world as though it had been his incantation.
But that is not the whole story. The incantation itself is a common verb too, and a synonym for the verb stun, so can it be used? Yes, and not by idiot characters. Here it is used by Dumbledore, Hermione, and Scrimgeour:
Page 464, HBP: "That's right," said Dumbledore. "We have no memories to show us this, but I think we can be fairly sure what happened. Voldemort Stupefied his uncle, took his wand, and proceeded across the valley to 'the big house over the way.'"
Page 785, HBP, Hermione says: "We went into his office to see if we could help Professor Flitwick and found him unconscious on the floor. . . and oh, it's so obvious now, Snape must have Stupefied Flitwick, but we didn't realize, Harry, we didn't realize, we just let Snape go!"
Page 820, Rufus Scrimgeour says: "Somebody Stupefied a Death Eater on top of the Tower after Dumbledore died."
There is a vernacular noun form to refer to this spell, also, as a "Stunner."
Page 627, OotP, from narrative: The figures around the cabin had shot no fewer than four Stunners at Professor McGonagall.
Page 659, OotP, From dialogue: "Couple of Stunners, a Disarming Charm, Neville brought off a really nice little Impediment Jinx," said Ron airily...
FANON VERBING OF SPELL NAMES
If we accept that in language usage wizards and witches create their own verbs based on spell names when a common verb does not stand in easily, as was done with "Imperiused," and that there are other vernacular adaptations in the canon, then I find the door is open to inventions such as "Legilimised." From what I could find with skimming the books, this usage never appears. Snape vehemently states that Legilimency is not "mind-reading," so the verb "read" ought not be used, in my opinion. So rather than always falling back on the construction "He used Legilimency on her" or "He cast Legilimens on her" I have often used the verb as in "He Legilimised her," though more often in dialogue than in non-vernacular narrative.
Another one that never appears in the books in other verb forms or other usage forms is Occlumency. I've settled on an actual verb for this, Occlude, and also a noun form for the act of Occlumency: Occlusion. It's simply too awkward to have to go back to the word Occlumency every time.
I'm sleepy, so I'll stop here, but I welcome others to add their comments and notes on forms and usage of spell names! Thanks!
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
The Scouring Charms, Scourgify
It has become very commonplace in fic to refer to the Cleaning Charm, but I could not find an actual use in the books of the term "Cleaning Charm." The first appearance of something like this is in Goblet of Fire, where it is referred to as a Scouring Charm, and then in Order of the Phoenix we get several uses of the incantation "Scourgify," although the term "Scouring Charm" does not appear there.
I did not find any uses in the canon of people using "Scourgify" as a verb, even though it sounds like one, and my prediction would be that wizards and witches would treat it like "Stupefy," and although one could use the common verb 'scour' or 'clean,' the verb-like nature of the incantation would probably lend it to being used thus: "I Scourgified the bottom of my trunk, but it still smells funny." In this case I would also say it makes sense, since there may be multiple ways to clean something, but by verbing the incantation one specifies what one did.
Your mileage may vary--you may chose to treat Scourgify like Accio and not verb it, but I probably will in dialogue from now on. (And I may quit referring to the Cleaning Charm. Hm.)
P 137, GOF: ...they watched Hermione teaching Neville a Scouring Charm to remove the frog guts from under his fingernails.
P 41, OotP: She pointed her wand at Hedwig's cage. 'Scourgify.' A few feathers and droppings vanished.
p 163, OotP: ʹNever mind,ʹ said Ginny bracingly. ʹLook, we can easily get rid of all this.ʹ She pulled out her wand. ʹScourgify!ʹ The Stinksap vanished.
p 579, OotP: ʹWash out your mouth,ʹ said James coldly. ʹScourgify!ʹ Pink soap bubbles streamed from Snapeʹs mouth at once.
Memory Charms, Obliviate
The very first reference to this type of spell is in COS, where Ron is describing a mishap that Arthur dealt with in his post at the Ministry. "Dad was going frantic--it's only him and an old warlock called Perkins in the office--and they had to do Memory Charms and all sorts of stuff to cover it up--"
Later, Lockhart explains his modus operandi and uses the terms "Memory Charms" and "a Memory Charm." As on page 297. "Awfully sorry, boys, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now."
What's interesting to me about this is that it is not THE Memory Charm, the way we have THE Cruciatus Curse, but "a," which caused me to go and look back at the usage of the other charm names. And in fact, Hermione teaches Neville "a" Scouring Charm, and in DH she uses "a" Summoning Charm, not "the." What is curious about this is that it implies that there are multiple variations of the Charms. And yet for each one that we know, it seems that there is a single incantation--even though the pink soap bubbles that come out of Snape's mouth in his worst memory seem to be a result of the same Scourgify that only causes stinksap to vanish when Ginny casts it. So, single incantation, but multiple 'charms' in that there are multiple uses or effects for the same spell?
But anyway, not to get sidetracked, but Lockhart uses the incantation "Obliviate!" It backfires on him because he uses Ron's broken wand. My question was next, do we ever see the usage "Obliviated" in the books as we do "Imperiused"?
Indeed we do. In DH, page 165, Hermione gets a brainstorm and the narrative reads: She was standing with one foot in midair, with the dumbstruck look of one who had just been Obliviated: her eyes had even drifted out of focus.
Also, note we have the word "Oblivator," to mean a Ministry employee who uses the spell to erase the memories of Muggles who have witnessed magic. Page 56, Arthur describes the man from the Ministry that Harry has seen do just that to Mr. Roberts, "Arnold Peasegood, he's an Obliviator member of the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, you know..."
In OotP, the lift announces "Level Three, Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, including the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, Obliviator Headquarters and Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee."
So add another one to the list of verbed spells from the canon!
By way of introduction to my background, I am a professional writer and editor, and my college degree is in Linguistics, so I think about this sort of thing a lot. I started looking into this when some other writers and I were chatting one night, and one of them thought my use of the made-up verb "Legilimise" was odd. I argued that J. K. Rowling herself set the precedent for the verbing of spell names, but I only recalled it being in dialogue, as if it could be slang or vernacular idiom. A look at the books tonight, though, shows that the narrative itself uses some forms, too.
Here are the data points I looked at tonight. I am using American editions, though my own spelling may be somewhat British since I'm just used to that when writing about HP. (Go figure.)
A Summoning Charm is spoken by the incantation "Accio ____" filling in whatever it is one is Summoning. It is correct to say someone Summoned something, but not that one "accioed" something. That construction does not appear anywhere I could find in the books, no doubt because the word Summon holds that place in the language. The words Summoning Charm and the usage of the verb are capitalised.
Page 92, DH: “Well . . . it was easy,” said Hermione in a small voice. “I just did a Summoning Charm. You know—Accio.
Page 165, DH: “Like Voldemort put on the stone basin in the cave,” said Harry, remembering how he had been unable to Summon the fake locket.
page 719, HBP: "But one of them jumped," [Harry] said, trying to make his voice as level and calm as Dumbledore's. "When I tried to Summon the Horcrux, a body leapt out of the lake."
THE KILLING CURSE, Avada Kedavra
Presumably is grammatically equivalent to The Summoning Charm, in that a common verb, "kill," can be used instead of an awkward construction like "I Avadakedavra-ed him."
THE IMPERIUS CURSE, Imperio
Imperius, on the other hand, does not have a common English language verb associated with it. The Imperius Curse is spoken by the incantation "Imperio!" It does not require a named target. In this case, JKR has established the verbing of the name into the word "Imperiused," in both character dialogue and in narrative. It is used both as a past tense verb form and as the adjectival form of the verb.
From dialogue:
"...She looked all funny when she said it. ... Oh no, oh no, I bet she'd been Imperiused and I didn't realize!" -- Leanne, Katie's friend, on page 316 of HBP
"Well, I know I pushed open the door," said Katie, "so I suppose whoever Imperiused me was standing just behind it." page 655, HBP
From narrative:
page 453 in DH:
He whispered urgently in Bogrod’s ear, but the Imperiused goblin shook him off.
page 628, in DH:
...the news now creeping in from every quarter as the morning drew on; that the Imperiused up and down the country had come back to themselves, that Death Eaters were fleeing or else being captured, that the innocent of Azkaban were being released...
THE CRUCIATUS CURSE, Crucio
Thus far I have found one example of Cruciatus being turned into a verb form.
Page 501 of DH, Amycus says, “What’ve they done, the little whelps?” he screamed. “I’ll Cruciate the lot of ’em till they tell me who did it—and what’s the Dark Lord going to say?”
One can argue that Amycus speaks crudely and is an idiot, but given the number of people (including the narrator) who used "Imperiused" I would say there is precedent. Note that it is "Cruciate" and not "I'll Crucio the lot."
The verb "to Stun" gets used normally when referring to the use of this spell, capitalised to distinguish it from other sources of being stunned (like being stunned by bad news). This appears in nearly all the books where the spell is used.
From p 74, OotP: Mrs Weasley abandoned the attempt to close the curtains and hurried up and down the hall, Stunning all the other portraits with her wand
p 401, Ootp: "- we can practise in pairs," said Harry. "We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again."
p 550: 'Hurry, Filch, hurry!' shrieked Umbridge, 'they'll be all over the school unless we do something - Stupefy!'
then:
'Don't Stun them, Filch!' shouted Umbridge angrily, for all the world as though it had been his incantation.
But that is not the whole story. The incantation itself is a common verb too, and a synonym for the verb stun, so can it be used? Yes, and not by idiot characters. Here it is used by Dumbledore, Hermione, and Scrimgeour:
Page 464, HBP: "That's right," said Dumbledore. "We have no memories to show us this, but I think we can be fairly sure what happened. Voldemort Stupefied his uncle, took his wand, and proceeded across the valley to 'the big house over the way.'"
Page 785, HBP, Hermione says: "We went into his office to see if we could help Professor Flitwick and found him unconscious on the floor. . . and oh, it's so obvious now, Snape must have Stupefied Flitwick, but we didn't realize, Harry, we didn't realize, we just let Snape go!"
Page 820, Rufus Scrimgeour says: "Somebody Stupefied a Death Eater on top of the Tower after Dumbledore died."
There is a vernacular noun form to refer to this spell, also, as a "Stunner."
Page 627, OotP, from narrative: The figures around the cabin had shot no fewer than four Stunners at Professor McGonagall.
Page 659, OotP, From dialogue: "Couple of Stunners, a Disarming Charm, Neville brought off a really nice little Impediment Jinx," said Ron airily...
FANON VERBING OF SPELL NAMES
If we accept that in language usage wizards and witches create their own verbs based on spell names when a common verb does not stand in easily, as was done with "Imperiused," and that there are other vernacular adaptations in the canon, then I find the door is open to inventions such as "Legilimised." From what I could find with skimming the books, this usage never appears. Snape vehemently states that Legilimency is not "mind-reading," so the verb "read" ought not be used, in my opinion. So rather than always falling back on the construction "He used Legilimency on her" or "He cast Legilimens on her" I have often used the verb as in "He Legilimised her," though more often in dialogue than in non-vernacular narrative.
Another one that never appears in the books in other verb forms or other usage forms is Occlumency. I've settled on an actual verb for this, Occlude, and also a noun form for the act of Occlumency: Occlusion. It's simply too awkward to have to go back to the word Occlumency every time.
I'm sleepy, so I'll stop here, but I welcome others to add their comments and notes on forms and usage of spell names! Thanks!
It has become very commonplace in fic to refer to the Cleaning Charm, but I could not find an actual use in the books of the term "Cleaning Charm." The first appearance of something like this is in Goblet of Fire, where it is referred to as a Scouring Charm, and then in Order of the Phoenix we get several uses of the incantation "Scourgify," although the term "Scouring Charm" does not appear there.
I did not find any uses in the canon of people using "Scourgify" as a verb, even though it sounds like one, and my prediction would be that wizards and witches would treat it like "Stupefy," and although one could use the common verb 'scour' or 'clean,' the verb-like nature of the incantation would probably lend it to being used thus: "I Scourgified the bottom of my trunk, but it still smells funny." In this case I would also say it makes sense, since there may be multiple ways to clean something, but by verbing the incantation one specifies what one did.
Your mileage may vary--you may chose to treat Scourgify like Accio and not verb it, but I probably will in dialogue from now on. (And I may quit referring to the Cleaning Charm. Hm.)
P 137, GOF: ...they watched Hermione teaching Neville a Scouring Charm to remove the frog guts from under his fingernails.
P 41, OotP: She pointed her wand at Hedwig's cage. 'Scourgify.' A few feathers and droppings vanished.
p 163, OotP: ʹNever mind,ʹ said Ginny bracingly. ʹLook, we can easily get rid of all this.ʹ She pulled out her wand. ʹScourgify!ʹ The Stinksap vanished.
p 579, OotP: ʹWash out your mouth,ʹ said James coldly. ʹScourgify!ʹ Pink soap bubbles streamed from Snapeʹs mouth at once.
Memory Charms, Obliviate
The very first reference to this type of spell is in COS, where Ron is describing a mishap that Arthur dealt with in his post at the Ministry. "Dad was going frantic--it's only him and an old warlock called Perkins in the office--and they had to do Memory Charms and all sorts of stuff to cover it up--"
Later, Lockhart explains his modus operandi and uses the terms "Memory Charms" and "a Memory Charm." As on page 297. "Awfully sorry, boys, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now."
What's interesting to me about this is that it is not THE Memory Charm, the way we have THE Cruciatus Curse, but "a," which caused me to go and look back at the usage of the other charm names. And in fact, Hermione teaches Neville "a" Scouring Charm, and in DH she uses "a" Summoning Charm, not "the." What is curious about this is that it implies that there are multiple variations of the Charms. And yet for each one that we know, it seems that there is a single incantation--even though the pink soap bubbles that come out of Snape's mouth in his worst memory seem to be a result of the same Scourgify that only causes stinksap to vanish when Ginny casts it. So, single incantation, but multiple 'charms' in that there are multiple uses or effects for the same spell?
But anyway, not to get sidetracked, but Lockhart uses the incantation "Obliviate!" It backfires on him because he uses Ron's broken wand. My question was next, do we ever see the usage "Obliviated" in the books as we do "Imperiused"?
Indeed we do. In DH, page 165, Hermione gets a brainstorm and the narrative reads: She was standing with one foot in midair, with the dumbstruck look of one who had just been Obliviated: her eyes had even drifted out of focus.
Also, note we have the word "Oblivator," to mean a Ministry employee who uses the spell to erase the memories of Muggles who have witnessed magic. Page 56, Arthur describes the man from the Ministry that Harry has seen do just that to Mr. Roberts, "Arnold Peasegood, he's an Obliviator member of the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, you know..."
In OotP, the lift announces "Level Three, Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, including the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, Obliviator Headquarters and Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee."
So add another one to the list of verbed spells from the canon!
