As Harry approached Hermione's table in the library, he could tell that there was something bugging her. So he asked, "What's wrong, Hermione?"

She replied, "Nothing, really. I was just curious where some of the... let's say, unusual words that wizards use came from, but I can't find anything! I swear, it's like no one in the wizarding world makes a study of etymology!"

"That wouldn't surprise me. Which words are you interested in?" Harry queried.

"All of them! 'Witch, wizard, muggle, wizengamot, mugwump!' I'd also like to know what the difference between a wizard and a warlock is." Harry was surprised to find that he knew the answer to most of those.

"I can help you with that." Harry was unsurprised, but still a little hurt, to see that Hermione looked shocked at that.

"Really? Where did you read it?"

"In the Little Whinging Library. I used to spend time in there to avoid Dudley and his friends." Hermione had never felt closer to Harry.

"But wait, what would muggles know about it? They don't even know that magic is real."

Harry was a little put back by Hermione's instant dismissal of muggles, but supposed that it was true to form for her; she always likes to assume that she, and those like her, knows more than others. "Muggles speak the same language we do, Hermione. It just so happens that most of those words are words that muggles use, or used to use. 'Witch' and 'wizard' both use the root word 'wise.' They both essentially mean 'wise person.' In that regard, I think I am going to start using 'magician' rather than those. 'Magician' isn't needlessly gendered, and it doesn't attribute wisdom that most of the magical population lack.

"Actually," continued Harry, "there is a pretty funny thing about 'witch' and 'wizard.' Technically, everyone who graduates from Hogwarts, male and female, is both a witch and a wizard. When Hogwarts was founded, witchcraft was, pretty much, all the classes we take that don't use a wand, with the exception of history, runes, and muggle studies, while wizardry was the wanded classes and runes. Girls were only offered the witchcraft classes and boys the wizarding classes. It wasn't until a few hundred years later that all the classes became open to all the students. So now we all learn witchcraft and wizardry and we are all witches and wizards."

"Oh, that is fascinating! I do remember Hogwarts, a History mentioning that all the classes became open to everyone about three hundred years after the founding, but I didn't read anything about the differences between witchcraft and wizardry!" Hermione's eye lit up with new understanding; Harry really needed to talk to her about getting her accidental magic under control.

"Anyway, 'muggle' was a term in like the twenties that meant 'easily fooled person.' So yes, that means that even the nice word for non-magical person is still a derogatory term." Harry could see the moment that Hermione realized that she had called her parents muggles to their faces.

Harry continued, "I suspect that someone just made up 'wizengamot' but it is clear that it is also based on the word 'wise' and I suspect that it means 'collection of wise men.' I don't know about 'mugwump,' but I do know that a warlock is a wizard that is trained for combat. That harkens back to the founding of the Wizengamot, when it was formed by a peace treating between all the leaders of the various families and clans of the area. In those days, the families were all basically at war with one another, and the heads of the families were generals and warlords. That always tickles me, to see some dumpy little coward in the newspaper proclaim himself a warlock."

Later, Hermione found herself sitting up at night reevaluating her opinion of her best friend; Harry clearly had hidden depths.

AUTHOR'S NOTE AS OF 5/31/2021 - This is hilarious. When I wrote this, it was basically just me speaking through Harry. I had no idea where Rowling could have gotten the word "wizengamot" from and legitimately thought she'd made it up. But no. Look up "witenagemot" on wikipedia. Turns out my guess about what it means is absolutely correct.

The Witenaġemot (/ˌwɪtənəɡəˈmoʊt/; Old English: witena ġemōt [ˈwitenɑ jeˈmoːt]; "meeting of wise men"), also known as the Witan (more properly the title of its members), was a political institution in Anglo-Saxon England which operated from before the 7th century until the 11th century. The Witenagemot was an assembly of the ruling class whose primary function was to advise the king and whose membership was composed of the most important noblemen in England, both ecclesiastic and secular.