Etymology

Voldemort

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Today it means: An evil, harmful, or widely feared person or thing. Full definition →

French vol de mort
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The story

  1. French · derived fromvol de mort“a flight or theft from death”
  2. English todayVoldemort

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", because Voldemort puts a spell on his own name that alerts him when others speak it.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.