STENTORIAN

Wild Word Friday!

Okay, I admit it.  I have never used the word STENTORIAN in my life.  Not verbally, not in my writing, except for this post, of course.  But it is a great word and worthy of Wild Word Friday.  This word came to us via a piece of literature.  In Homer’s Iliad, when Juno vociferously encourages the Greeks to engage in battle, Homer compares her voice to that of a hero whose name was Stentor.  Evidently, Stentor had a very loud voice.  Here’s the quote from the Iliad, verse 783:

         “Stentor the strong, endued with brazen lungs,  whose thoat surpass’d the force of fifty  tongues.” (Translation by Pope.)

So our word STENTORIAN means LOUD!  But lest you become encouraged to mimic that great ancient Greek hero, be warned that Stentor died in a shouting contest.  Thus, we learn that loud words have their place on occasion, but sometimes not.

Q4U:  What characteristic or quality could be named after you?   I could probably give name to the propensity to kill houseplants through overwatering.  As in, “Don’t Sue-Harrison that cactus.  Remember you watered it just last week. ”

Blessings!  Sue