Muggle

Rowling's word for a person with no magical ability and no magical blood.

A Muggle, in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, is a person who has no magical ability and no magical blood, not having been born into a magical family. It differs from a Squib, who has magical parents but no power, and from a Muggle-born, a witch or wizard with non-magical parents.

The magical community of the United States says No-Maj instead, short for no magic, while French equivalents are Non-Magiques and No-Majes.

Quick Facts

Us equivalent: No-Maj
French equivalents: Non-Magiques, No-Majes
Derived from: mug

Facts from the source article.

Background

Muggles are ordinary people almost always unaware that magic exists, and the novels often show them as foolish or befuddled. If one does see magic at work, the Ministry of Magic sends Obliviators to cast Memory Charms. Some do know about the wizarding world: the parents of Muggle-born children such as Hermione Granger's, the Muggle Prime Minister, the Dursleys, and non-magical spouses of witches and wizards.

Children of one magical and one non-magical parent are half-bloods, and the most prominent half-blood is Harry himself, since his mother Lily was Muggle-born. The derogatory term mudblood implies the supposed impurity of Muggle blood.

Rowling built the word from mug, an English term for someone easily fooled. It has since spread to other contexts where group members use it for outsiders, much as soldiers say civilian.