SOURCE: “Mind Your Language,” in Spectator, Vol. 284, No. 8957, April 8, 2000, p. 19.

In the following review, Wordsworth examines the word “muggle”, the term Rowling uses to refer to those without any magical abilities.

‘Oh, not Harry Potter!’ whined Veronica when she saw the cover of a book lying on the kitchen table. She is of an age that defines itself by having outgrown books supposedly for children. But she need not have worried, because all that remained was the cover, and the pages I had preserved and marked with fascinating insights in manuscript had fallen into my knitting-bag or the cat's basket or somewhere, and I won't be able to find them unless I invoke St Antony in desperation.

Yet J. K. Rowling keeps popping up, even in the pages of the TLS this week, where its diarist J. C. is discussing the etymology of Muggles. The word is used...