Post by Amy Crystle Lake Smith on Jul 4, 2008 13:25:48 GMT -5
Pureblood.
Pure-blood is the term applied to wizards who claim to have no "Muggle blood" at all in their genealogical pedigree. To be a pure-blood, all of a wizard's grandparents (or further more generations) must have been wizards. To maintain their blood purity, supremacist families have been known to inbreed into their own families by marrying their cousins; this results in mental instability and violent natures. Over the course of the books, some of the remaining families die out while others hang on the brink of extinction with only one male heir.
Half-Blood
Half-blood is the term applied to wizards who come from "Muggle & magical", "Muggle-born & half/pure-blood", or "half & half-blood" parents (all including part-Muggle ancestry). Half-bloods are the most common kind of wizard blood, out-numbering pure-bloods and Muggle-borns. Rowling has stated that of the Hogwarts annual intake, 50% are half-bloods. Pure-blood supremacists view half-bloods as inferior to them, although superior to Muggles and Muggle-borns.
Muggle-Borns
Muggle-Born is the term applied to wizards who come from Muggle parents. Muggle-borns will have a magical ancestor in the genealogy, possibly numerous generations back. Pure-blood supremacists refer to Muggle-borns with the offensive derogatory term Mudblood, a term analogous to racial and ethnic slurs found in the non-magical world. Supremacists as well believe Muggle-borns to be magically deficient, despite obvious proof to the contrary such as Hermione and Lily Evans, who have proved to be exceptionally skilled in their abilities. The average Hogwarts annual intake for Muggle-borns is 25%.
[Thanks Wikipedia]