Pensieve
By J.K. Rowling
- the pensieve is a shallow dish that is carrying powerful enhantments.
- it creates re-livable memories even for a second party
- it takes all the subconscious and recreates the memory
- it can reveal one’s secrets and thus many are afraid of using one
- the pensieve can be used to examine and sort thoughts and ideas, but it is very difficult to do so.
- then pensieve is a very personal item and usually burried with its owner after death
- the Hogwarts Pensieve is however a shared pensieve, used by all the headmasters and so contains a powerful library of reference, containing the life experiences in form of memories.
The name ‘Pensieve’ is a homonym of ‘pensive’, meaning deeply, seriously thoughtful; but it is also a pun, the ‘sieve’ part of the word alluding to the object’s function of sorting meanings from a mass of thoughts or memories.
source: pottermore
German Terminology
Der deutsche Ausdruck ist Denkarium. pensive bedeutet nachdenklich