July 6, 1999

hector

The origins of the verb "to hector" keep puzzling me. My reading of Homer's "Iliad" suggests that Hector was a decent chap, not too prone to bully other people (at least by the battlefield standards of the day). In fact, Hector's nemesis, Achilles, looks more like the quintessential bully. The verb does not show up in other languages. Somebody screwed this one up?

The origin of hector is indeed an interesting question. The usual sense of the word in modern English as as a verb meaning 'to bully or harrass; to act in a bullying manner'. Rather clear example: "At both ends of the escalators, attendants--usually scowling harridans in blue--hector and berate any passenger who steps out of line" (The Atlantic, February 1998).

But as you correctly note, the character of Hector, the greatest Trojan hero in the Iliad, is quite the opposite of the implied stereotype. Ironically in that poem, the victorious Greeks are generally portrayed as petulant children, while Hector is not only a brave warrior but also a devoted family man; you will recall the famous scene in Book 6 where he behaves with great tenderness towards his infant son Astyanax, who had been terrified by the plume on Hector's helmet.

Indeed, in late Middle and early Modern English the word hector was used generically to mean 'a valiant hero'.

But in the mid-seventeenth century, London was plagued by a violent street gang who called themselves "the Hectors," fancying themselves gallant warriors. The other residents, less thrilled with the Hectors' hooliganism, started using the name as a noun referring to a swaggering bully. At around the same time the word developed the familiar verb sense 'to bully or harrass'.

In Greek the name Hector literally means 'holding fast', after a verb 'to have; hold'.