Vocabulary Question for mi ss/hg prompt

[nocturnus33]

Could wizards and witches be considered fairies?

In Spanish is unthinkable, but it seems the word fairy has a narrow meaning in my language than in English.

Comments

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

I don't think so.

The definition is: of various supernatural beings with magical powers, generally of diminutive and graceful human form, common in folklore.

And they aren't supernatural.

[nocturnus33]

Depending what we understand by supernatural; theirs powers; are natural?

My problem is veryt prosaic, and don´t need a very big discussion. If Hermione is someones godmother, could she be called a "fairy godmother"?

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

She could if someone was joking, but not literally.

[nocturnus33]

Ok, thanks. So lets be it.

[knight0fswords.livejournal.com]

I don't equate fairies with witches or wizards, so in that point, English and Spanish are agreed. More importantly, in the HP world, fairies and wizards are decidedly different.

Wizard or witch could equate more to words like sorcerer(ess), conjurer, enchanter, magician, necromancer.

[nocturnus33]

At least in chile, a fairy is an "hada"; like the ones that cast wiches for sleeping beauty; the diference with a wicht is that the latter is an "hada mala" bad fairy. It seems to me, that in english magical creatures like gnomes could be fairies too.

[regann]

I would say no, Wizards/Witches can not be fairies. In English, there is 'fairy' (with a little 'f') which probably means exactly what it means in Spanish and wizards/witches are not fairies like this.

There is also a broader use of "Faerie" that can mean a certain kind of supernatural being (related to fairies but very different from what we think of) but it would not work for Harry Potter Wizards/Witches.

I hope that helps! (And sorry if I confused you.)

[nocturnus33]

Thanks, never realized that there were fairy & Faerie

[regann]

There's not a real difference but people use it to mean very different things. :)

[vanityfair00.livejournal.com]

It is narrow in English too...a wizard or witch would not be a fairy.