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Throughout the Harry Potter books, there are some variations between the Bloomsbury (British) and Scholastic (American) editions. Below the first section on "Philosopher's vs. Sorcerer's" is a section on other different terminologies used.

Philosopher's vs. Sorcerer's

When Scholastic was publishing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in America, they decided to rename the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. They claimed that the American and British uses of the word philosopher were a bit different, so therefore sorcerer was a more appropriate word. Any true Harry Potter fan, American or British, Australian or Hungarian, I'm sure will agree with MuggleMix when we say that decision should not have been made the reasons are:
1) J.K. Rowling said so, therefore it must be true. She says that if she was in a better position, she would have disagreed at the time.
2) It belittles Americans, making it seem as if they do not understand what the word "philosopher" means. Americans are smarter than that.
3) Sorcerer is unspecific. The stone could have belonged to anybody with magical powers in the book. But the British name defines who the stone belongs to and gives the name an entirely different meaning. Sorcerer is a very different word to philosopher.
4) The stone is referred to as the "Philosopher's Stone" throughout J.K. Rowling's original version, never the "Sorcerer's Stone", so why should the most central object of the book be labelled something completely different in the book title, even if its just being published in a different place?
5) How is the word "philosopher" in Britain different from the word "sorcerer" in America?
6) Philosopher's Stone is actually a historical object that people used to search for, while the Sorcerer's Stone has no factual background in real life

Ah well...

Other Terminology

There are some other minor changes that occurred in case Americans got confused. Some ones, such as turning "mum" into "mom" and "trainers" into "sneakers", J.K. Rowling refused to let happen. However, she allowed some changes to be made that, if they were not made, would befuddle the reader:

UK: Skip
US: Dumpster
UK: Minister for Magic
US: Minister of Magic
UK: Sybill Trelawney
US: Sibyll Trelawney
UK: Car park
US: Parking lot
UK: shan't
US: won't
UK: sherbet lemon
US: lemon drop
UK: dustbin
US: trashcan
UK: roundabout
US: carousel
UK: jumper
US: sweater
UK: comprehensive
US: public school
UK: holidaying
US: vacationing
UK: crisps
US: chips
UK: football
US: soccer
UK: lavatory seat
US: toilet seat
UK: barking
US: off his rocker
UK: tinned soup
US: canned soup
UK: wellington bookts
US: rubber boots
UK: tank top
US: sweater vest
UK: nutter
US: maniac
UK: cupboard
US: closet
UK: torch
US: flashlight
UK: letter boxes
US: mailboxes
UK: sack
US: fire
UK: matron
US: nurse
UK: biscuits
US: cookies
UK: while
US: whilst
UK: leaned
US: leant
UK: schedules
US: timetables
UK: walnut
US: satsuma
UK: Augustus
US: Algernon
UK: review
US: revise
UK: shagpile carpet
US: shag carpet
UK: humph
US: hmpf
UK: pants
US: briefs
UK: silver
US: silvery
UK: pinny
US: apron
UK: Pekinese
US: Pekingese
UK: afterwards
US: afterward

(this article was posted by the original writers and can also be found on link, link
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