Gaunt family

The Gaunt family is a family from Harry Potter.

Family Members

 * Corvinus Gaunt
 * Marvolo Gaunt
 * Morfin Gaunt
 * Merope Gaunt
 * Tom Marvolo Riddle

Family
Corvinus Gaunt is an ancestor of Marvolo Gaunt. Marvolo is the father of Morfin and Merope. Years of inbreeding within the Gaunt family made them very poor, mentally unstable and violent. Marvolo and Morfin Gaunt abused Merope all while she was growing up, which caused her magic to be suppressed. After the death of her father and imprisonment of her brother, her magic manifested and she used a love potion to make Tom Riddle fall in love with her. They had a child, Tom Riddle Jr., who would be unable to love due to being conceived under the effects of a love potion.

Related Families

 * Peverell family
 * Slytherin family
 * Riddle family

Etymology
Gaunt: Gaunt is an English word that means "haggard, drawn and emaciated" and "bleak, desolate".

Corvinus: Corvinus is a variation of corvus, which means "raven" in Latin. A famous Roman general, Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, bore this name.

Marvolo: Marvolo is a compound of the English word mar, which means "to inflict damage on" and the Latin word volo, meaning "I want". Therefore, the name Marvolo means "I want to inflict damage on", matching Marvolo's personality.

Morfin: Morfin is a variation of the Anglo-French surname "Morfey", which means "ill-omened" or "ill-fated".

Merope: Merope was a Greek nymph that married Sisyphus. Merope is said to be ashamed of marrying a mortal, which fits the possible meaning of the name Merope, "with face turned", from the Greek elements meros and ops, which mean "part" and "face, eye" respectively.