'Expecto Patronum '
- Expecto Patronum, the spell that conjured up Harry’s magnificent stag Patronus, roughly translates into ‘I expect (or await) a guardian’ in Latin, which is apt.
- Historically, in Ancient Rome, the word ‘patronus’ meant protector, too, but with very different connotations. A patronus in Ancient Rome was someone of a high class who had a ‘patronage’ relationship with a client, who would usually be less rich, or lower class. In turn, the word ’patronage’ most likely came from the term ‘Pater’, which means ‘father’ in Latin.
'Petrificus Totalus '
- First, we have ‘Petra’, which is derived from ‘petros’, which means ‘rock’ in Greek.
- ‘Ficus’ is a Latin suffix which denotes ‘making’ or ‘doing’ something.
- ‘Totalus’ is a loose reworking of ‘totalis’, which, once again, is Latin, meaning ‘total’ or ‘entire’.
- So roughly speaking, ‘Petrificus Totalus’ translates to ‘Make rock totally.’
'Expelliarmus '
- ‘Ex’ means ‘out’ and ‘pellere’ means ‘to drive’, which finally formed the word ‘expel’.
- Its definition in basic terms means to ‘drive out’. ‘
- Armus’, as you may expect, is indeed Latin for a similar sounding part of the body: the arm, or specifically the shoulder joint. In time, the term ‘arm’ took on combat meaning (such as, to ‘arm’ yourself with a wand) with the Latin term ‘arma’, meaning weapon.
- Piecing the syllables back together, we have a rough translation of the phrase ‘drive out weapon’ – which is precisely what Expelliarmus does.
'Lumos ' and 'Nox '
- Sister spells Lumos and Nox give light and take it away, respectively. Lumos could well come from the 19th-century Latin word ‘lumen’, which simply means ‘light’. Adding the Latin suffix ‘os’ means to ‘have something’: to have light, in this instance.
- Nox is Latin for ‘night’, but is also rooted in Greek mythology. ‘Nyx’, closely related to ‘Nox’, is the name for the Greek goddess of night.
'Sectumsempra '
- The first half of his self-made curse, ‘sectum’, is Latin for ‘having been cut’: an interesting choice for a man who has the word ‘sever’ in his own name.
- The second part of the word, however, is fascinating. Because although ‘sempra’ isn’t a Latin word, it is very close to the word ‘semper’, which was known in the Latin phrase ‘semper fidelis’.
