First, I found this on the internet:

The Wordwizard Clubhouse

prat

I heard the word pratfall used the other day and became curious about its origin. Random House Unabridged says that it is a fall in which one lands on the buttocks, often regarded as comical or humiliating; a humiliating blunder or defeat [1935–40; PRAT + FALL]. I then wondered where prat came from. I looked in several dictionaries (regular and slang) and found a whole bunch of meanings (both noun and verb). The one thing that most agreed upon, was that the word was of unknown origin (i.e. unknown Latin, Greek, … root), but that it did begin meaning buttocks in the 1500s (RH said 1550-70, M-W said 1530-69), and to push with the buttocks (“..pratted him away from the ticket window”), at some unspecified and presumably later date.

Back to the Bytheway’s

In years past, the term “prat fall” of course is a slapstick comedy move that used to just tickle my dad. However, in our church history we have two rather famous brothers with the last name of “Pratt.” My father, in his usual style, used to substitute the first name of one of these brothers, whose name was Orson Pratt, for the word prat. He would use it something like this: “He fell down on his Orson!”

It has become our standard family word now. So for example, when Ron calls Harry a prat after rescuing Fluer’s sister in GoF, we would, of course have called Harry an Orson!

See, her influence is still strong.

Here at my work, there are a few fellow engineers who have listened to Harry Potter while driving to work. One day when I took “You Know Who” to work, I got quite a laugh from one of them. He has asked me if I have driven “You Know Who” lately a number of times.

To make matters worse for me, the only LARGE store in the area(Walmart) has a three foot tall statue of Dobby from WarnerBrothers used as a promo item when the video was released. This thing is unbelievably real and its sits at the front entrance of the store. in a plastic cube. I’m in that store about 4 times a week and the only thing keeping me form steeling it is the fact that one of the three elementary schools in the county will win it for their library in a reading contest.

Believe me when I say if Robert’s school wins, Dobby will be comming to Niubus with me.