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In Homer's Iliad, Hector, the eldest son of King Priam of Troy, was a model soldier, son, father, and friend, the champion of the Trojan army until he was killed by the Greek hero Achilles. So how did his name become a verb meaning "to intimidate or harrass"? That use was likely influenced by gangs of rowdy street toughs who roamed London in the 17th century and called themselves "Hectors." They may have thought themselves gallant young blades, but to the general populace they were swaggering bullies who intimidated passersby and vandalized property.
Examples of hector in a Sentence
Philip Elliott, TIME, 7 Jan. 2025
And Remy places McCarthy on Baldwin’s subcommittee when in fact the Wisconsin senator never actually served as a member but instead had received, as a courtesy, permission from Baldwin to attend the subcommittee’s hearings (which McCarthy then exploited to harass and hector witnesses).
—Lawrence Douglas, Foreign Affairs, 17 June 2017
Francesca Chambers, USA Today, 18 May 2025
Indeed, last summer, Beijing hectored Cambridge University Press into sanitizing the digital archive of The China Quarterly, an important English-language academic journal, by removing over 300 articles the CCP found objectionable from its Chinese search function.
—Orville Schell, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2017
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Cite this Entry
“Hector.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hector. Accessed 29 May. 2025.
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