Harry Potter and the Grown-Up Words

Thanks Mom, for taking this pic!

It was asked of me recently where I find words for this blog. I confess, it comes from reading. And though I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that the last two books I read were by J. K. Rowling, (I'm way behind the times), I did manage to glean a handful of succulence to share.

Apoplectic - describing someone near to, or in the midst of a stroke, as when describing the captain of the Quidditch team: "he was apoplectic with rage," which to me is almost redundant, but we'll let it slide this time, Joanna.

Arrant - utter, extremely. As in "arrant nonsense."

Balaclava - a covering for the head and neck which looks to me like part ski mask, part ninja costume.

Slipstream - the wake of a moving vehicle, as in the Hogwart's Express.

Having read Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban back to back, I cannot tell you which word comes from which book. But I did take a picture of a typo in Chamber of Secrets. Did anyone else catch it? Check out the picture after the jump.


That's not how you spell "professor," whether wizard or muggle!