The adjective stentorian, meaning “extremely loud,” comes from the name of brazen-voiced Stentor, a Greek herald in The Iliad, whose voice was said to be as powerful as that of 50 men. The noun and verb mentor come from The Odyssey. In that Greek poem, Athena assumes the guise of a man named Mentor, who advises the son of Odysseus. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Stentorian Origin”
The word stentorian describes somebody with a loud or powerful voice, but it’s got a great etymology. It goes back to the Iliad. There’s a Greek herald in the Iliad who is described as brazen-voiced Stentor. It’s a proper name. The guy’s name was Stentor, brazen-voiced Stentor, whose cry was as loud as that of 50 men together.
Oh, wow.
And brazen itself has an etymology, right?
I think it does.
It has to do with bronze or something like that.
I believe so, right.
So it’s the sound of trumpets, right?
There you go.
Interesting.
Stentorians, named after somebody.
Yeah, and in the Odyssey, of course, you have Mentor, who is another character in the Odyssey. Athena takes the form of Mentor, and he’s a counselor to the son of Odysseus.
Perfect.
This is where we get our words from the classic literature of the Western cultures. We get a bunch of them.
877-929-9673 or talk to us on Twitter @wayword.
