Gryffindor, butterbeer, dementor, chocolate frog… scores of terms have crept from the Harry Potter books into the English language. Some have become bywords for a state of mind; others for a personality type. Muggle and Quidditch are even in the Oxford English Dictionary (the first since 2003, the second since 2017). Our favourites take ideas from the books into the real world, subtly altering both. Take a look.
* The sorting hat and the four houses
One of the remarkable things about the world of the Potter books is that there is room here for everyone. At the Hogwarts school, personalities are accommodated, rather than flattened to force-fit a template. It is understood that while Gryffindor is generally believed to hold students who are chivalrous, smart, brave and loyal, they can also be reckless and suffer from a saviour complex. And while members of the Slytherin house are ambitious, calculating and cunning, they have good in them too. Hufflepuffs, similarly, are largely loyal, dependable and unpretentious. Ravenclaws are intellectual, curious and academically inclined. Fans have been sorting themselves into these houses since 1997.
* Wrock
Wizard rock or wrock is a musical sub-genre of novelty rock and filk (music built around themes of sci-fi, fantasy and horror; a genre that has itself existed since about 1950). Wrock does not feature in the books, but has evolved as a sort of tribute to them, since the early Aughts. Leading bands include Harry and the Potters from Massachusetts, and Draco and the Malfoys from Rhode Island. They perform mainly at fan events. Would the music at the Yule Ball have technically been wrock? It’s hard to say.
* Butterbeer
This frothy drink has, for generations of readers, come to signify a specific golden period of adolescences: that time of early joyful freedom, without care. In the books and movies, one can secure signed permission from a guardian, go to the wizarding village of Hogsmeade, get a table with friends at The Three Broomsticks pub, and enjoy an evening of banter over this lightly boozy, sweet, creamy beverage.
Introduced in the third of the seven books, …Prisoner of Azkaban (1999), it has filtered into dessert café and pub menus around the world. Recipes typically feature cream soda, whipped cream, butterscotch. Official non-alcoholic versions are sold as souvenirs at the Universal Studios Wizarding World theme parks.
* Avada Kedavra
A flash of blinding green, followed by death. Avada Kedavra is the Killing Curse that causes instant, painless demise. It is what Voldemort uses to kill Harry’s parents. Its only antidote, pure love, is what saves Harry. The term echoes an Aramaic phrase (avra kehdabra), that means “let the thing be destroyed”, which, in English, long before Harry, became abracadabra.
* Dementor
These tall, shadowy, humanoid figures guard the Prison of Azkaban, in the wizarding world. They spread despair, drain away joy and vitality, revive trauma. They have become a way to talk about the burdens of anxiety, depression, ennui.
* Patronus
The spell it takes to summon a Patronus requires grit, willpower, and a lifetime of happy memories. But cast it right, and the result is a silvery holographic spirit animal that spreads a protective shield around the spell-caster that can ward off even dementors. Harry’s Patronus, a silvery stag, saves him over and over.
Isn’t that a remarkable idea: Live well, and when the going gets tough, a quiet force of hope and joy will turn up to help. Our world has them, of course: friends, parents, siblings, coworkers.
