Voldemort

English

Lord Voldemort.

Etymology

After the evil wizard Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter, coined by author J. K. Rowling as a compound of French vol de mort (“a flight or theft from death”). Voldemort's birth name is Tom Marvolo Riddle; an anagram of it is "I am Lord Voldemort". The verb sense comes from the fact that in the story, many characters refuse to call Voldemort by his proper name, calling him euphemisms such as "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" or "You-Know-Who". Also, Voldemort puts a spell on his own name that alerts him when others speak it.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvəʊldəˌmɔː(t)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvoʊldəˌmɔɹ(t)/

Noun

Voldemort (plural Voldemorts)

1. An evil, harmful, or widely feared person or thing.
   • 2012, G. M. Malliet, A Fatal Winter‎^[1], Constable & Robinson, published 2012, →ISBN:

     […] Oscar has been called the Voldemort of Fleet Street by both friends and enemies. He was apparently ruthless in all his business dealings.'

   • 2012, B. J. Mendelson, Social Media Is Bullshit‎^[2], St. Martin's Press, published 2012, →ISBN:

     If you asked me to identify a Voldemort in the myth of “social media,” it would be these people, and not guys like Gary Vaynerchuk.

   • 2013, Robert H. Lustig, Heather Millar, & Cindy Gershen, The Fat Chance Cookbook: More Than 100 Recipes Ready in Under 30 Minutes to Help You Lose the Sugar and the Weight‎^[3], Hudson Street Press, published 2013, →ISBN:

     Fructose is the Voldemort of the metabolic syndrome pandemic: stealthy, ever-present, and bad for the common good.

   • 2018 September 10, Gretchen McCulloch, “Welcome to Voldemorting, the Ultimate SEO Dis”, in WIRED‎^[4], archived from the original on 21 November 2018:

     Rather than just extracting one taboo word and replacing it with another, online Voldemorts spread and mutate into dozens, even hundreds, of potential synonyms. […] (In perhaps the most ironic example of Voldemorting, I once tweeted the word Voldemort itself and my tweet was liked by two separate parody Voldemort accounts, presumably hoping to juice their follower count through a little social media Dark Arts.)

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Voldemort.

Derived terms

• Rowldemort
• Velveeta Voldemort
• Voldemortesque
• Voldemortian
• Voldemortish
• Voldemort type
• Voldy

Verb

Voldemort (third-person singular simple present Voldemorts, present participle Voldemorting, simple past and past participle Voldemorted)

1. (transitive) To avoid naming someone or something directly; to use circumlocution.
   • 2018 August, Emily van der Nagel, “‘Networks that work too well’: intervening in algorithmic connections”, in Media International Australia, volume 168, number 1, →DOI, →ISSN, page 88:

     PhD candidate and attendee NatalieZed (2015a, 2015b) instead Voldemorted the hashtag by using #Deatheaters – a term for Voldemort’s supporters, also from the Harry Potter novels – to refer to Gamergate harassers: […]

   • 2018, Elle Kennedy, The Chase, Elle Kennedy Inc., →ISBN:

     “We don't speak Daphne's name in this house,” Kaya explains to me. Jee-zus. One measly stomach pumping and poor Daphne gets Voldemorted? The Kappa Beta Nu chapter of Briar University is evidently a lot stricter than the Brown chapter.

   • 2018 September 10, Gretchen McCulloch, “Welcome to Voldemorting, the Ultimate SEO Dis”, in WIRED‎^[5], archived from the original on 21 November 2018:

     Yet Voldemorting departs from the Harry Potter analogy in one crucial way. You Know Who and He Who Must Not Be Named are a small set of ominous phrases, while internet Voldemorting is often playful and cycles through infinite variations of newly coined words. […] Voldemorting is the anti-SEO, the anti-keyword, and the anti-hashtag. It transforms your subject from a single mass into an ungraspable swarm.

   • 2021, Roni Loren, Yes & I Love You‎^[6], Sourcebooks, Inc., →ISBN:

     You two Voldemorted the sexual tension between you. You took the power out of it. Like, hey, we both have pants feelings for each other. Let's stop pretending we don't and deal with it so we can stop being so freaked out about it.

   • 2021, Nicholas Carah, Media and Society: Power, Platforms, and Participation‎^[7], SAGE, →ISBN:

     Voldemorting is the tactic of not mentioning the name, keyword, hashtag or handle you are talking about because you don't want them to know you are talking about them.

References

• Like Voldemort, Ransomware Is Too Scary to Be Named
• Tom Riddle