Less universe-specific synonyms for "squib"?
I write primarily fantasy; recently, it's been brought to my attention that I use the terms "muggle" and "squib" informally fairly often in roleplay. If I were to publish something, I'd not want to use Potterverse terms; "muggle" can be substituted with "mundane" or "normie", I suppose, though they don't have the same ring to them, but is there a better, less verse-specific term I can use instead of "squib" to mean "Someone who was expected to have magic due to magical heritage but who does not?"
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Isn't one of the non-Rowling definitions of "squib" "a firecracker which doesn't explode"? So Rowling took something which means "has potential or is expected to do something, and fails to deliver," and used it for slang in a very appropriate way.
As I've said elsewhere, copy the work ethic, not the end result. Find or invent some other term which implies "fails to live up to potential or expectations" and use that instead.
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