Newt Scamander: What’s in a name?Source：Newt Scamander: What's in a name? (mugglenet.com)
Newton “Newt” Artemis Fido Scamander is the star of the upcoming film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them written by J.K. Rowling. Jo is known for packing a lot of meaning into a name (e.g., Lord Voldemort or Albus Dumbledore), so what could be behind Newt’s (rather long) name?牛顿“纽特”·阿蒂米斯·菲多·斯卡曼德（Newton “Newt” Artemis Fido Scamander），是J.K.罗琳创作的《神奇动物在哪里》的主角。众所周知，罗琳给角色起名字时会赋予很多意义（例如，伏地魔/Lord Voldemort或阿不思·邓布利多/Albus Dumbledore）。那么，纽特的名字背后，又有着怎样的意义呢？
Well, “Newton” could be named after Sir Isaac Newton, a Muggle trailblazer. As Sir Isaac Newton laid the foundations for classical mechanics, Newt laid the foundations for magizoology.首先，“牛顿/Newton”可能源自于艾萨克·牛顿（Sir Isaac Newton），一位麻瓜先驱。就像艾萨克·牛顿奠定了经典力学的基础一样，纽特奠定了魔法动物学的基础。
trailblazer，名词，指“创始人；先驱；拓荒者；开路先锋”（a person who is the first to do or discover sth and so makes it possible for others to follow）
lay，及物动词，指“铺放；敷设；铺设”（If you lay something such as carpets, cables, or foundations, you put them into their permanent position.）例：A man came to lay the saloon carpet...“Newt” as a nickname is named after the amphibian, which has long had an association with witches and wizards. “Eye of newt and toe of frog” was mentioned by the Weird Sisters in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and was later adapted by John Williams for “Double Trouble” for the soundtrack of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
“纽特/Newt”是一种两栖动物蝾螈的昵称。而这种动物，长期以来，与巫师有着密切的关系。在莎士比亚的《麦克白》中，古怪姐妹曾提到“蝾螈的眼睛和青蛙的脚趾”，后来被约翰·威廉姆斯改编为《哈利·波特与阿兹卡班的囚徒》的配乐《双重麻烦》。
newt，名词，指“蝾螈（水陆两栖）”（a small animal with short legs, a long tail and cold blood, that lives both in water and on land）
amphibian，名词，指“两栖动物”（any animal that can live both on land and in water. Amphibians have cold blood and skin without scales . Frogs , toads and newts are all amphibians）J.K. Rowling is known to have admired Monty Python. In fact, she had wanted Monty Python’s director Terry Gilliam to direct the Harry Potter movies. A famous line from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail mentions newts: A man accuses a woman of being a witch by exclaiming, “She turned me into a newt!” before adding, “I got better.” This might be a subtle homage to that scene.
J.K.罗琳非常欣赏“巨蟒剧团”（Monty Python）。事实上，她曾希望巨蟒剧团的导演特里·吉列姆执导《哈利·波特》系列电影。在电影《巨蟒与圣杯》中，有一句著名的台词就提到了蝾螈：片中一个男人指责一个女人是女巫，他惊呼道：“她把我变成了蝾螈！”然后又说，“我变得更好了。”“纽特”这个名字可能就是对这场戏的微妙致敬。
Monty Python，是英国六人喜剧团体，喜剧界的披头士。
python，名词，指“蟒蛇；蚺蛇；巨蛇”（A python is a large snake that kills animals by squeezing them with its body.）homage，名词，指“致敬，敬辞，表示敬意的举动”（致敬;敬辞;表示敬意的举动）NEWT is also the acronym for the exams Hogwarts students take in their seventh year, possibly alluding to Newt Scamander’s intellect.
此外，NEWT也是霍格沃茨七年级学生要参加的考试的首字母缩写（注，N.E.W.T.是Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests的英文缩写，高级巫师等级考试），可能暗指纽特智商很高。
acronym，名词，指“（尤用作名称）首字母缩拼词，首字母缩略词”（a word formed from the first letters of the words that make up the name of sth）
allude，不及物动词，指“间接提到；暗指；影射”（If you allude to something, you mention it in an indirect way.）例：She also alluded to her rival's past marital troubles.Newt’s name might also tie him to another famous naturalist. David Attenborough, like Newt, displayed a keen interest in the natural world as a child and had collected fossils, stones, and other natural specimens by the age of seven. Newt at the same age “spent hours in his bedroom dismembering Horklumps”.
纽特的名字也可能和另一位著名的自然学家有关系。大卫·爱登堡，和纽特一样，从小就对自然界表现出浓厚的兴趣，7岁时就开始收集化石、石头和其他自然标本。而纽特也在同样的年纪“在卧室里花几个小时分解霍克拉普”。
David Attenborough，大卫·爱登堡，被认为是有史以来旅行路程最长的人，多年来与BBC的制作团队一起，实地探索过地球上已知的所有生态环境，不仅是一位杰出的自然博物学家，还是勇敢无畏的探险家和旅行家，被世人誉为“世界自然纪录片之父”。
dismember，及物动词，指“分割…的躯体；肢解”（to cut or tear the dead body of a person or an animal into pieces）Horklump，根据《神奇动物在哪里》的设定，看起来像一支肉乎乎的粉色蘑菇，覆盖着黑色鬃毛。这种生物原产于斯堪的纳维亚，但现在已经遍布整个北欧。Interestingly, one of Attenborough’s earliest contributions to zoology entailed newts – Attenborough “aged 11… heard that the zoology department needed a large supply of newts, which he offered via his father to supply for 3d [pence] a newt.” This may or may not have anything to do with Newt’s name, but it is an interesting connection between a great Muggle naturalist and a great wizarding magizoologist.
有趣的是，爱登堡对动物学最早的贡献之一，就是关于蝾螈的——爱登堡“在11岁时，听说动物学系需要大量的蝾螈，他就通过父亲，以一只3便士的价格，向他们提供蝾螈”。这可能与纽特的名字有关，也可能无关，但这是一个伟大的麻瓜博物学家和一个伟大的魔法动物学家之间的有趣联系。
entail，及物动词，指“牵涉；需要；使必要”（to involve sth that cannot be avoided）
例：The job entails a lot of hard work.“Fido” is one of Newt’s middle names and literally means “I trust” in latin. This might underline his connection to Hufflepuff house while also being a common name for pet dogs (possibly popularized by Abraham Lincoln).
“菲多/Fido”，是纽特的中间名，按照拉丁语来解释，其字面意思是“我相信”。这可能是在强调他和赫奇帕奇学院的关系。此外，“菲多”也是常见的宠物狗的名字（可能和亚伯拉罕·林肯有关系，因为他的狗就叫“菲多/Fido”）。“Artemis” is the second of Newt’s middle names. Artemis was referred to by Homer as “Artemis of the Wildland, Mistress of animals.” Artemis was also known as the goddess of the Moon, possibly hinting at Newt’s later work with the Ministry in creating a Werewolf Register.“阿蒂米斯/Artemis”是纽特的第二中间名。阿蒂米斯被荷马称为“荒野的阿耳忒弥斯（注：Artemis的另一种音译方法），动物的女主人”。阿耳特弥斯也被称为月亮女神，这可能暗示了纽特后来与魔法部合作创建了狼人登记簿。
Lastly, “Scamander” ties up Newt’s name nicely. Scamander sounds a lot like “salamander” – which has both a Muggle and magical meaning. According to Fantastic Beasts, Salamanders are “small fire-dwelling lizards that feed on flames.” In the Muggle world salamanders are amphibians; it is important to note all newts are salamanders, but not all salamanders are newts — “salamander” is the name for an entire group of animals, whereas newts are a subset of that group.最后，“斯卡曼德/Scamander”与“纽特”这个名字很好地联系在了一起。斯卡曼德/Scamander，听起来像“蝾螈/salamander”，它既有麻瓜的意思，也有魔法的意思。根据《神奇动物在哪里》一书，Salamanders指火蜥蜴，是“一种生活在火焰中的小蜥蜴”。而在麻瓜的世界里，Salamanders指蝾螈，是一种两栖动物；需要注意的是，所有“newts”（蝾螈的一种）都是“salamanders”（蝾螈的通称），而不是所有的“salamanders”都是“newts”。It is possible that the magical world may have been remiss in allowing Muggles to continue to be aware of salamanders. They have a unique property among (Muggle) vertebrates in that they can regrow entire limbs. If that doesn’t seem like a magical creature to you, I don’t know what is.有可能是魔法世界的疏忽，让麻瓜世界注意到了蝾螈。在麻瓜世界的脊椎动物中，蝾螈有一种独特的能力，那就是它们可以重新长出完整的四肢。如果你觉得这不算是魔法生物，那我不知道它能算什么了？
vertebrate，名词，指“脊椎动物（包括所有哺乳动物、鸟类、鱼类、爬行动物和两栖动物）”（any animal with a backbone , including all mammals , birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians）
Overall, there is a duality to Newt’s name that ties in with a medieval view of witchcraft. Newts were usually associated with water, while salamanders were associated with fire. Salamanders innately possess the duality of being able to survive on land and in water – this ties back to medieval ideas about witches. One of the tests to “discover a witch” was to throw a woman into a pond to see if she floated or sank, that is, to see if she possessed the dual nature of amphibians – and could survive both on water and on land.总之，“Newt”这个名字的双重性，与中世纪对巫术的看法有关。“Newt”通常与水有关，而“salamanders”又与火有关系。蝾螈天生具有在陆地和水中生存的双重能力，这与中世纪对女巫的观念有联系。在“发现女巫”的测试中，有一条方法是把一个女人扔进池塘里，看她是浮起来还是沉下去，也就是说，看她是否拥有两栖动物的双重本性——能够在水里和陆地上生存。This ties back to the origin of “Scamander.” Scamander was a Greek river god, and here, once again, J.K. Rowling has made a reference to Homer. In the Iliad, Homer mentions that the river Scamander has two springs: one that produces cold water and one that produces warm, further highlighting the dual nature of Newt’s name. The god Scamander fought in the Trojan War, which might be a hint that Newt was instrumental in either the war against Grindelwald and/or the war against Lord Voldemort.让我们回到“斯卡曼德/Scamander”的起源上来。Scamander是希腊神话中的一位河神，这里，J.K.罗琳再次参考了荷马的文章。荷马在《伊利亚特》中提到Scamander河有两股泉水：一股产生冷水，一股产生温水，这进一步突出了“Newt”这个名字的双重性。Scamander神参加过特洛伊战争，这可能暗示纽特在对抗格林德沃和/或对抗伏地魔的战争中发挥了重要作用。
instrumental，形容词，指“起重要作用”（important in making sth happen）
例：He was instrumental in bringing about an end to the conflict.Also, Scamander sounds a little bit like “scamper,” which might refer to Newt “scampering” about the world looking for interesting new magical creatures.此外，Scamander的发音听起来像“scamper”，这可能是指纽特在全世界“蹦蹦跳跳地”寻找有趣的新魔法生物。scamper，不及物动词，指“（尤指儿童或小动物) 欢快地奔走；蹦蹦跳跳”（(especially of children or small animals) to move quickly with short light steps）
例：Children scampered off the yellow school bus and into the playground...What do you think of Newt’s name? Do you think there are any other meanings or conclusions to be drawn? 
