He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with — with a person called — but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows –" "Who? " "Well — I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does." "Why not?" "Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went… bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was…" Hagrid gulped, but no words came out. "Could you write it down?" Harry suggested. "Nah –can't spell it. All right — Voldemort." Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry.
(Harry Potter, book 1)
What does the highlighted part mean?
- I don't dare spell it, for doing so is dreadful or unpleasant.
- I don't know how to spell the name.
Could both the meanings be possible?
(The reason I wonder is that Hagrid looks up some books for keeping a dragon in the book, and he also was a boy in the Magician's school. So it would not be quite right to estimate him as an ignorant person.)
Best Answer
Can and cannot/can't refer to ability. I don't know the setting, but literally it should be (2). Either he can't spell it or he doesn't know how to write.
One would say "I don't dare spell it" or some similar fearful expression. And I doubt that kind of phrase would start with "Nah" (depends on the expression though).