Hermione Granger-ize

J. K.'s inspiration for Hermione's last name? There is that scene with Harry and Hermione in the library when Madam Pince chases them out for having desecrated a book by writing in it...

Wordsmith.org

The Magic of Words

This week's theme
Words about censorship and destruction of books

This week's words
comstockery
imprimatur
bowdlerize
nihil obstat
grangerize

---

Add your two cents' ...
to this week's theme and words. Or, if you wish, use paise, pence, yen, pesos, piasters, etc. Log on at our bulletin board
Wordsmith Talk

---

Discuss
Feedback
RSS/XML

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

grangerize

PRONUNCIATION:

(GRAYN-juh-ryz)

MEANING:

verb tr.:
1. To mutilate a book by clipping pictures out of it.
2. To illustrate a book by adding pictures cut from other books.

ETYMOLOGY:

After James Granger (1723-1776), an English clergyman whose Biographical History of England had blank leaves for illustrations, to be filled with pictures, clippings, etc. by the reader.

USAGE:

"Bagtoothian looked up from his reading, An Illustrated History of Sparta, which he proceeded to grangerize."
Roger Rosenblatt; Beet: A Novel; HarperCollins; 2008.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The most miserable pettifogging in the world is that of a man in the court of his own conscience. -Henry Ward Beecher, preacher and writer (1813-1887)