Etymology

parseltongue

P3A1R1S1E1L1T1O1N1G2U1E1

Today it means: A fictional language of snakes in the Harry Potter universe. Full definition →

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The story

Coined by British author and philanthropist J. K. Rowling in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998) as Parseltongue. J. K. Rowling stated that she based the term on an "old word for someone who has a problem with the mouth, like a hare lip".

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.