Editing Lord Voldemort (section)

== Character development ==
In a 1999 interview, Rowling claimed Voldemort was invented as a nemesis for Harry Potter, and she intentionally did not flesh out Voldemort's [[backstory]] at first. "The basic idea [was that Harry] didn't know he was a wizard ... And so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was. ... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry—he tried to curse him. ... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And—so—but for some mysterious reason the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard, who has been in hiding ever since."<ref name="rehm" />

In the second book, Rowling establishes that Voldemort hates non-[[Fictional universe of Harry Potter#Blood purity|pure-blood]] wizards, despite being a half-blood himself. In a 2000 interview with the [[BBC]], Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "Well I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2004/0304-wbd.htm|title=JK Rowling talks about Book Four |publisher=cBBC Newsround |date= 4 March 2004|access-date=2 April 2018}}</ref> In the same year, Rowling became more precise about Voldemort. She began to link him to real-life tyrants, describing him as "a raging [[psychopath]], devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering".<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Jeff|last=Jensen|url=http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2000/0900-ew-jensen.htm|title='Fire' Storm |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]]|location=New York City|date=7 September 2000|access-date=2 April 2018}}</ref> In 2004, though, Rowling said that she did not base Voldemort on any real person.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2004: Accio Quote!, the largest archive of J.K. Rowling interviews on the web |url=http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2004/0304-wbd.htm |access-date=2024-01-15 |website=www.accio-quote.org}}</ref> In 2006, Rowling told an interviewer that Voldemort at his core has a human fear: the fear of death. She said: "Voldemort's fear is death, ignominious death. I mean, he regards death itself as ignominious. He thinks that it's a shameful human weakness, as you know. His worst fear is death."<ref name="www.accio-quote.org">{{cite web |url= http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2005/0705-tlc_mugglenet-anelli-2.htm |first1=Melissa |last1= Anelli |first2= Emerson |last2=Spartz |title= The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet interview Joanne Kathleen Rowling: Part Two |website= The Leaky Cauldron |date= 16 July 2005 |access-date= 2 April 2018}}</ref>

Throughout the series, Rowling establishes that Voldemort is so feared in the wizarding world that it is considered dangerous even to speak his name. Most characters in the novels refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name aloud. In ''[[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]]'', a "[[Taboo#Popular culture|taboo]]" spell is placed upon the name, such that Voldemort or his followers may trace anyone who utters it. By this means, his followers eventually find and capture Harry and his friends [[Ron Weasley]] and [[Hermione Granger]]. In the second book, Rowling reveals that ''I am Lord Voldemort'' is an [[anagram]] of the character's birth name, Tom Marvolo Riddle (in translated editions of the book, his middle name or entire birth name is/are often changed in order to allow anagrams to be formed in other languages).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-11-15 |title=13 'Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets' Translations Of The Name Voldemort That Make The Dark Lord Seem Laughable |url=https://www.bustle.com/p/13-harry-potter-the-chamber-of-secrets-translations-of-the-name-voldemort-that-make-the-dark-lord-seem-laughable-4064898 |access-date=2024-08-12 |website=Bustle |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Translations |first=Day |date=2017-07-04 |title=Harry Potter in Translation: From Serpentard to Rumpledunk |url=https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/harry-potter-translation/ |access-date=2024-08-12 |website=Day Translations Blog |language=en-US}}</ref>

According to the author, Voldemort's name is an invented word.<ref>{{cite web |first=Christopher|last=Lydon|url=http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/1999/1099-connectiontransc2.htm|title=J.K. Rowling interview transcript|publisher=The Connection ([[WBUR-FM]]) |date=12 October 1999|access-date=2 April 2018}}</ref> The name ''Voldemort'' is derived from the French ''vol de mort'' which means "flight of death" or "theft of death".<ref>{{cite web |date=17 July 2019 |title=The different meanings behind Lord Voldemort's many names |url=https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/the-different-meanings-behind-lord-voldemorts-many-names |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204052409/https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/the-different-meanings-behind-lord-voldemorts-many-names |archive-date=4 February 2021 |access-date=26 December 2021 |website=[[WizardingWorld.com]]}}</ref>