Not touch something or someone with a ten-foot broomstick

In the fourth novel Harry has to deal with a particularly annoying journalist named Rita Skeeter. She publishes an article exposing Hagrid as half-giant. Harry is furious and confronts her: “‘I wouldn’t come near you with a ten-foot broomstick,’ said Harry furiously. ‘What did you do that to Hagrid for, eh?’”[1]

            The expression ‘ten-foot broomstick’ has been influenced by the phrase ‘ten-foot pole’ used in the non-magical world.  The first time ‘not touch with a ten-foot pole’ has been used was in “the mid-1700s, when it began to replace the earlier not to be handled with a pair of tongs. In the 1800s barge-pole was sometimes substituted for ten-foot pole, but that variant has died out.”[2]

According to the Oxford Dictionaries a bargepole is described as “a long pole used to propel a barge and fend of obstacles.”[3] A ten-foot pole had the same purpose and was, thus, necessary to avoid unpleasant things. The replacement of the pole with a broomstick shows the importance of brooms within the wizarding world. All these expressions refer to the fact that a person is unwilling to approach something or someone else. This might be due to a lack of trust or a general dislike towards the other person.

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[1] Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000,p.491.

[2] "Not Touch with a Ten-foot Pole." Dictionary.com. Houghton Mifflin Company. Web. 20 Mar. 2015. <dictionary.reference.com/browse/not touch with a ten-foot pole>.

[3] "Bargepole." Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Web. 20 Mar. 2015. <http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/de/definition/englisch/bargepole>.