changed words in Harry Potter books

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated Fri, 19 Jan 2001 08:45:30, Laurence Horn
<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> writes/quotes:

>  >But I think the Americanization of the Potter books actually was fairly
>  >limited. For instance, Harry's friend Ron often uses the word "git" for
>  >schoolmates he doesn't like. This word is not in most American
dictionaries
>  >and is unfamiliar to American kids and to most of their parents as well.
>  >
>  >Joe
>
>  Luckily for some of those parents, the Beatles used "stupid git" in
>  at least one of their songs, so it's not totally unknown to us.

I found one usage of "git" in this sense by a US author, the science fiction
writer Lois McMaster Bujold, in _Vor Game_ (New York: Baen Books, 1990, ISBN
0-671-72014-7, page 261:

<BEGIN QUOTE>

    "...The Barrayaran emperor, Gregor Vorbarra, was kidnapped.  I found him,
lost him, and mow I've got to get him back.  As you can imagine, I expect the
reward for his safe return to be substantial."
    Tung's face was a study in appalled enlightenment.  "That skinny
neurasthenic git you had in tow before---that wasn't him, was it?"

<END QUOTE>

                  - James A. Landau
                    systems engineer
                    FAA Technical Center (ACT-350/BCI)
                    Atlantic City Airport NJ 08405 USA