Wow...while I agree with Warlocke, is he 'on the rag', or something?

 

If only his wonderful rants were on such a timetable- no, Warlocke must fill his annoyance cup to a sufficient level before the poetry can flow.

 

Very much on the pet end of the peeve scale but… Wards. Not the concept of magical defences but just calling them wards. It’s okay when it’s some kind of technical term, which is not used in everyday conversation, but when every second character is saying wards every third sentence it really breaks from the canon lexicon. The words ward and wards are never used in canon to refer to magical defences and it’s a peeve of mine when everyone and their mother starts doing so.

 

That's true - we never actually see 'wards' used in canon; only 'protections', etc.

Wards is (are?) a popular term for such protections in other popular franchises and series, so I guess it's natural that fanon writers use it quite a bit.

 

A small peeve of mine is that in a few mediocre fics I have read, the author blows the term "muggle" out of proportion, where some character goes on a tirade about how derogatory it is and uses "non-magical" instead. Imo is not an issue you should spend a paragraph on, when is it really just a classification. Just like how a person capable of magic is called a witch or a wizard, one not capable of such feats is a called a muggle. The term is actually less derogatory than the actual opposite of magical which is mundane.

 

That's... not exactly how linguistics works, anyways. If the general usage of the term is commonplace and not intended to be derogatory but merely descriptive, then it simply isn't derogatory.

 

That's petpeeve of mine actually. Though the only examples I can think are in nonjon's Browncoat, Green Eyes and jbern's Bungle in the Jungle.

 

I have to agree that from what I've seen, it often gets blown out of proportion (in a sort of "look at how completely anti-racist I am!" kind of way), but I can see why people do such with it in fics. There is a similarity to real world racism, and people are VERY aware that racism is a Bad Thing.

Doesn't mean I enjoy reading an entire chapter on "I am an American, and muggle is a horrible word and you should feel like a very naughty boy, Mr Potter."

 

Dude, what are you reading, and how terrible is it? Entire chapters on single words? That's almost as bad as fics where the actual writing is decent but the author's notes are 'riten in chtspk becuz its cooler :3333'

 

The version I particularly hate is where they try and replace 'muggle' with 'normal'. There is no way a wizard or witch would classify themselves as 'abnormal', thus 'muggles' can't be 'normal'.

 

Besides, as a muggle, I'm not sure 'normal' is a very appropriate description for me... or many other people.

 

I've seen the term "mundane" used.

 

And again, not actually accurate to what they are trying to demonstrate with the word use.

 

Both normal and mundane are accurate descriptions, depending on the perspective. Both are accurate if you take them out of a dictionary and apply them to the situation.

 

A muggle dictionary.

 

Normal wouldn't ever be used by wizards and witches, because, as Mordecai said, that would mean they would be classing themselves as odd.

I don't have a problem with mundane being used, but I fail to see how it avoids any of the issues that muggle has. Also, you often see it used in conjunction with 'first generation magic user', which is a stupid system as after first gen, you might have different numbers coming from either side.

 

See, I can see 'first generation magic user' as politically correct ridiculous term for muggleborn. The sort of thing that maybe someone has suggested in the course of a political campaign that never really caught on but maybe rears its head every so often. But never as the common term of reference.

And if anything wizards would refer to themselves as normal, and to muggles as abnormal. I think muggle is slightly less pejorative than abnormal. So T3t, in no sane universe would a wizard use the term normal for muggles. Unless you can actually present a reason why?

On the point of mundane, I can maybe see your point. But it again doesn't strike me as an accurate description. Wizards wouldn't think of themselves as spiritual or heavenly, thus muggles are not the opposite. Wizards, to themselves, are the norm. Muggles deviate from it.

 

You are culture A. Using a descriptive term X for Culture B does not imply that !X is an accurate descriptive term for your own culture.

 

What you just said...makes no sense to me.

 

Actually, it kind of does, when you are differentiating the two. !X may not be an accurate summation, but when the two societies are different, and segregated based on said difference, then A calling B term X clearly implies that A is not term X.

Calling muggles normal... implies that the wizards are not normal (otherwise the term would be pointless). Hence the wizards are effectively calling themselves abnormal.

Calling muggles mundane similarly implies the wizards are not mundane, hence the term. And like Mordecai has pointed out, that doesn't make sense, not from a wizard's standpoint.

If anything, the muggles would be called abnormals - they are abnormal, in that they cannot use magic. But of course, that renders the whole point of being politically correct moot.