Hogwarts

Coined by J. K. Rowling in her 1997 book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Rowling has speculated that she might have subconsciously produced the name from hogwort, a plant she saw when walking round Kew Gardens.

Previously used by by Geoffrey Willans in his 1953 book Down With Skool’’. Willan’s use was as the title of a fictitious play, “The Hogwarts”, referred to in the book as the creation of Marcus Plautus Molesworthus.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔɡ.wɔɹts/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɒɡ.wɔːts/

Hogwarts

1. The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a school for learning magic in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of books.
   • 2000, “Real Me”, episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

     Buffy: No, but, see, Mom, that doesn't really work for me. We're just going to the magic shop, no school supplies there.

     Dawn: Yeah, Mom. I'm not going to Hogwarts.

   • 2004 John Lewis Gaddis, The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past (page 5)

     Remember [...] what it was like to enter your first public or private school, or to arrive at places like Oxford, or Yale, or the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?

   • 2005 A Modern Introduction To Probability And Statistics: Understanding Why and How by Michel Dekking, Frederik Michel Dekking, Cor Kraaikamp, H. P. Lopuhaä, L. E. Meester (page 126)

     Since px(0), px(1), py(0) and py(1) are all equal to 1/2, knowing only px and py yields no information on ε whatsoever. You have to be a student at Hogwarts to be able to get the values of p right!

   • 2005 2005 Wicca Almanac by various, Llewellyn, Elizabeth Barrette

     Teaching, if you've never done it, is a difficult task. There isn't a real-life Hogwarts to send your aspiring young Witch or wizard to, so teaching children falls to you, the parent.

   • 2007, Steve Prentice, Cool Down: Getting Further by Going Slower, Wiley, page 190

     When people plan out their actions, they do more. When they write out their fears, they solve more. You do not need to be a Hogwarts grad to master that type of magic.

2. Any institution similar in field, appearance, or oddity.
   • 2006 June 19, “Neil Finn to split NZ for Elroy”, in Sydney Morning Herald:

     The school, which is set within a grand castle (it's all very Hogwarts), is an international college for students who are selected for their potential

   • 2009 June 2, “Meet the artist who'll be living in a museum”, in BBC News:

     It all feels very Hogwarts.

   • 2007, Cristina Chaminade, Bino Catasús, Intellectual Capital Revisited: Paradoxes in the Knowledge Intensive Organization, Edward Elgar Publishing, page 75

     reinventing the university as a mysterious place like a Hogwarts of intellectual capital

   • 2009, Kevin Mellyn, Financial Market Meltdown: Everything You Need to Know to Understand and Survive the Global Credit Crisis, ABC-CLIO, page 198

     The BIS remains a global club for central bankers, a Hogwarts for financial wizards.

   • 2010 January 20, “Liv Boeree looking hot in new Maxim photoshoot”, in Bluff Europe Magazine:

     At Hogwarts School of Journalism and Blogging, protected by a Muggle-proof shield in the Scottish mountains, they teach us to make our headlines

• Dracorex hogwartsia (species of dinosaur)

• warthogs