Today’s word of the day, thanks to the Words Coach website (https://www.wordscoach.com/dictionary), is afflatus. Afflatus, pronounced / əˈfleɪ təs /, is a noun that means “inspiration; an impelling mental force acting from within” or “divine communication of knowledge” (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/afflatus). Samuel Johnson, in his 1755 Dictionary, defines it as “Communication of the power of prophecy” (https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=afflatus). I have to admit that, while I have heard this word in the past, I never knew what it actually meant before, and it kind of sounds like refers to an expiration rather than an inspiration.

Etymonline.com says that entered the English language in the “1660s, from Latin afflatus ‘a breathing upon, blast,’ figuratively ‘inspiration,’ noun use of past participle of afflare ‘to blow upon,’ from ad ‘to’ (see ad-) + flare ‘to blow’ (according to Watkins from PIE root *bhle- ‘to blow’). The literal meaning ‘a blowing or breathing upon’ is rare in English, this sense being taken by afflation (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=aflatus). That PIE root, by the way, “might form all or part of: afflatus; bladder; blase; blast; blather; blaze (v.2) ‘make public;’ blow (v.1) ‘move air;’ conflate; deflate; flageolet; flatulent; flatus; flavor; inflate; inflation; insufflation; isinglass; souffle (ibid.).

Merriam-Webster adds this: “Inspiration might be described as a breath of fresh air, and so it is appropriate that inspire derives in part from a word meaning ‘to breathe’—Latin spirare. Afflatus is a lesser-known word for inspiration that followed a parallel route. Afflatus, which in Latin means ‘the act of blowing or breathing on,’ was formed from the prefix ad- (‘to, toward’) and the Latin verb flare (‘to blow’). That Latin verb gave us such words as inflate and (via French) soufflé. The Roman orator Cicero used afflatus in his writings to compare the appearance of a new idea to a breath of fresh air. Nowadays, one often finds the word preceded by the adjective divine, but poets and artists can find afflatus in the material world as well (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/afflatus).

On this date, according to On This Day, in 1997 “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 1st book in J. K. Rowling’s best-selling series, is published” (https://www.onthisday.com/events/june/26).

J. K. Rowling (/ ˈroʊ lɪŋ / ) was born in 1965 in Gloucestershire, England. Her parents were working class and ex-military, and while they did not attend university, they were both interested in sharing literature with their children: “Her father read The Wind in the Willows to his daughters, while her mother introduced them to the animals in Richard Scarry’s books” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling). “When she was a young teenager, Rowling’s great-aunt gave her Hons and Rebels, the autobiography of the civil rights activist Jessica Mitford, who became Rowling’s heroine” (ibid.).

Her home life was difficult, apparently, and she was an average student. “Rowling always wanted to be a writer, but chose to study French and the classics at the University of Exeter for practical reasons, influenced by her parents who thought job prospects would be better with evidence of bilingualism. She later stated that Exeter was not initially what she expected (“to be among lots of similar people – thinking radical thoughts”) but that she enjoyed herself after she met more people like her. She was an average student at Exeter, described by biographers as prioritising her social life over her studies, and lacking ambition and enthusiasm. Rowling recalls doing little work at university, preferring to read Dickens and Tolkien” (ibid.). She was also a big fan of Jane Austen, which led her into her first marriage. She had taken a job in Portugal, and it was there that she met “the Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes in a bar and found that they shared an interest in Jane Austen. The relationship was troubled, but they married on 16 October 1992” (ibid.). That marriage led to a child and then to a divorce, and Rowling found herself back in the UK in poverty.

The main characters from the Harry Potter series apparently came to her fully formed while she was in a delayed train (ibid.). The writing began in 1990 and was influenced by the death of her mother at the end of that year. But she was working part-time jobs, and then struggling with being a single mother, so the writing took several years. She finished it in June of 1995, and the first twelve publishers it was submitted to said “no.” Finally, Bloomsbury bought it because the head of the publisher was impressed that his eight-year-old daughter wanted to keep reading it after she had read the first chapter (ibid.). It was not an overnight success. But her life was changed when the rights to the American market were purchased for $105,000. Since that time, she has become one of the most successful writers in history.

I read all seven of the Harry Potter novels before the movies ever came out, and I read them because I got my kids to read them, and I wanted to know what they were reading. I have been a reader of fantasy literature my entire life, going back to L. Frank Baum and Edgar Rice Burroughs when I was a kid. My mother brought me The Hobbit from the local public library when I was in the sixth grade, and I did a book report for English class on the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the seventh grade. I am not exactly an expert on fantasy literature (I once taught a class on the Inklings), but I feel as if I know enough to say that the Harry Potter series is really good.

And when I say, “really good,” I mean more than just the reading. I think the story (if you look at the series as one long story arch) is moral and positive. Of course, some people, particularly in the evangelical community, were troubled by the series because the characters were witches. Where I taught, at one point an education professor assigned the first novel to her adolescent literature class, and the Board of Trustees were quite upset. Of course, the magic of the Narnia series never seems to bother them, nor the good witch of The Wizard of Oz. If you have never read the series, and if you aren’t one of those people who hates fantasy, you should give them a read, although it is hard to have that first-read experience when so much about the series and its author is out there already.

There is also a bit of controversy now about J. K. Rowling, and that’s sad. Whatever you may think of the author, the fact remains that in 1990 she experienced an afflatus that benefited more than just her.

The image today is of the American publication of the first Harry Potter novel, called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (https://www.libroworld.com/9780590353403/). The name was changed for the US market because of the publisher, Scholastic: “Arthur Levine, the man behind Scholastic’s Harry Potter publication, had reservations about the book’s title, more specifically with the word ‘philosopher.’ He was worried that the word was too old-fashioned for young readers. ‘Philosopher’ was not a commonly used term and it was believed that the book would be overlooked if not for a title change. Scholastic suggested ‘Harry Potter and the School of Magic’ as the new title but Rowling later picked Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The word ‘sorcerer’ had a clear connotation to magic, something that wouldn’t confuse readers” (https://screenrant.com/harry-potter-philosophers-sorcerers-stone-us-title-change-reason/). A philosopher’s stone is something that can change lead or mercury into gold.