Nice bit of vocabulary here…
I hadn’t come across “alfinetar” as a verb before but it’s obviously related to alfinete – a safety pin. So…. is Rowling putting a safety pin in the girl who played one of the lead characters in her most famous creation? And if so, why?
According to Priberam, alfinetar usually means what it sounds like – to pin something with a safety pin, pin it up, or prick something with the point. But it also has two figurative meanings – to satirise someone or to offend them with words.
I didn’t actually follow the story, but Watson is always being asked to repudiate Rowling to show what a good person she is, and of course Watson knows what will happen to her if she doesn’t so she always takes the bait. Rowling – surprisingly for someone of her age – is actually pretty good at bare knuckle social media brawling, so I suppose she must have clapped back on this occasion. I can’t really be bothered finding out how or why, but I like the word. Alfinetar. I must use that in future!
Luso 