Rowlingesque
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more Rowlingesque
form: most Rowlingesque
Etymology: From Rowling + -esque.
Senses: examples: text: Part of the fun of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books are the names she comes up with; the author said in a recent online chat that she’s amassed dozens of notebooks where she jotted down unusual names she saw or thought up. Here are the Rowlingesque meanings behind a few:[…]
ref: 2000 July 1, The Detroit News, page 16C:
text: […]Scamander’s account is clearly rooted in the ancient descriptions, with some Rowlingesque revisions in the role of Herpo the Foul (“a Greek dark wizard and Parselmouth” who create the first Basilisk (3), among other things[…]
ref: 2005, Cynthia Whitney Hallett, Scholarly Studies in Harry Potter: Applying Academic Methods to a Popular Text, The Edwin Mellen Press, →ISBN, page 69:
text: Mr. Larsen’s Hairy Pothead learns to play Qannabbi instead of Quidditch, meets Delirious Bake instead of Sirius Black — and on it goes with other Rowlingesque characters such as Master Head Alwaze Duinthadope.
ref: 2007 September 21, National Post, volume 9, number 276, page A8:
text: The book contains such typically Rowlingesque characters as tree stumps with eyes and hairy hearts, and includes a frontispiece noting that the stories were “translated from the original runes.”
ref: 2007 November 2, “Rowling bids farewell to Harry for charity”, in The Ottawa Citizen, page A10:
text: Strong sales (a combined 143 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list) and some serious online obsession from teen girl fans have vaulted Meyer to Rowlingesque heights of popularity;
ref: 2008 July 30, John Burns, “Twilight Saga fans prepare for Friday midnight release”, in The Vancouver Sun, page D3:
text: Why, then, are we so wedded to the romantic illusion of authors as poor, tortured, hungry souls, labouring in unheated garrets until the day they are discovered and rewarded with fairy[-]tale fortunes of Rowlingesque proportions?
ref: 2010 February 16, “Now we can all believe in ghostwriters”, in The Daily Telegraph, page 20:
text: The emphasis in the script by Steve Kloves (a credited contributor to all but one of the Potter screenplays) is on intensity, as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and best friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint — a Rowlingesque name in its own right) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) make their way back to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in hopes of destroying the last of the magical “horcruxes” that contain the divided pieces of Voldemort’s soul.
ref: 2011 July 14, John Beifuss, “‘Deathly Hallows: Part 2’ ends Potter saga”, in The Commercial Appeal, page M4:
text: 2010’s “The Lightning Thief” was way too Rowlingesque, a fantasy-adventure set in a magical boarding school directed by “Potter” vet Chris Columbus.
ref: 2013 August 9, The Anniston Star, volume 133, number 221, page 4B:
text: The classroom had been transformed to look like one from Hogwarts, with cobwebs and ‘traditional desks’ and one student teacher was performing the role of a ‘Rowlingesque’ potions teacher quite beautifully.
ref: 2016, Adrian Copping, Being Creative in Primary English, SAGE Publications, page 17:
text: And more intimately, the Rowlingesque celebration of discovering kinship in the unlikeliest places, and being who you are without apology.
ref: 2016, Ian Nathan, Inside the Magic: The Making of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, HarperCollins:
text: My sixth novel didn’t do so well with the critics, though the sales were Rowlingesque.
ref: 2018, Ian McEwan, My Purple Scented Novel, Vintage, →ISBN:
text: Another retooled technique is that of fantasy or fairy tale, now used not for the purposes of magic realism but by a novelist like Hamid in Exit West (2017), as his characters commute between war zones and other places, through magic doors reminiscent of Rowlingesque portals.
ref: 2021, Justin Quinn, Gabriela Kleckova, “Introduction”, in Anglophone Literature in Second-Language Teacher Education: Curriculum Innovation through Intercultural Communication, Routledge:
glosses: Characteristic of J. K. Rowling (born 1965), British author, philanthropist, film producer, and screenwriter.
Synonyms: Rowlingian