I had too much fun with last week's topic of words from literature to abandon it just yet. I found a few more.
MENTOR
I know I must have read "The Odyssey" by Homer at some point, but I didn't remember Mentor.
Forget that we got the word odyssey, a long and winding journey, from the epic. (Seems a bit obvious, no?) But Odysseus, the central person in the work, asks a friend to watch and guide his baby son while he goes on his adventures. His friend's name is Mentor, and today we have the word mentor, defined as a wise counselor or concerned teacher.
I had a baking mentor, so I understand the importance.
Here's the twist. The goddess Athena disguises herself as Mentor, and persuades Odysseus' son, Telemachus, to venture out into the world and discover more about his father. Britannica says Athena became the goddess of good counsel, of prudent restraint and practical insight, as well as of war.
It sounds like Athena did the truly hard work. Can you imagine planning Telemachus' journey in pre-internet days? So, I have to wonder why mentors aren't instead called athenas.
STENTOR, STENTORIAN
Stentor was a Greek herald. A herald makes important announcements.
You might have heard of the herald angels:
"Hark, the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king."
Hmm. I can't confirm that the angels also say "hark." It could be that the person standing next to you says, "Hark, the herald angels sing." And then both of you hear them singing, "Glory to the newborn king."
In the U.S. Colonies, we had Paul Revere during the Revolutionary War delivering the key in the Boston area for what the lights in the Old North Church would convey: One if by land, two if by sea. One light meant the British troops would advance by land. Two lights meant they would advance by sea.
(Well, this is what poet Henry Longfellow said Revere said in his role of herald. The poem fudges a few facts.)
But back to Greek. Stentor was apparently a born herald. He was a herald in the Trojan War. In "The Iliad," Homer says Stentor is "a man whose voice was as loud as that of 50 men together."
I can think of a few people with such voices.
The noun stentor has come to mean a person with a booming voice. The word stentorian is the adjective form. Have you heard the voice of sportscaster Chris Berman? The Washington Post says his stentorian delivery earned him the nickname "Boomer."
EAT THE FROG
I normally stay miles from silly business buzzwords and phrases. But then I learned this one came from Mark Twain. And I suppose some people use the phrase even away from their workplaces.
I found two versions of Twain's frog quote. I suppose that in his 75 years, it's completely possible he said two things about frogs. Wait, he also wrote "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," so that's three times.
One was:
"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first."
The other was:
"Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day."
I'm not sure why Twain had this frog obsession, but I'm sure he wouldn't be pleased that the phrase "eat the frog" became a productivity phrase. Somehow, the business world has kidnapped the phrase to mean if you have an odious task to perform in your job every day, do that task early in the day. It basically means: stop procrastinating.
I'm not at all sure how Mark Twain would feel about how the phrase has hopped off.
BLATANT
I had never heard about the origin of blatant. The 16th-century British writer Edmund Spenser wrote "The Faerie Queene," and one character was called the Blatant Beast. This beast had 1,000 tongues and was forever slandering the royalty in the story. Possibly, the adjective came from the Latin word meaning to babble.
The word blatant has come to mean noisy, clamorous, obvious, conspicuous and brazen. See how harmful 1,000 tongues can be? I will stick with just one.
THOUGHTCRIME
George Orwell, in his terrifying book "1984," written in 1949, gave us the even more terrifying thoughtcrime.
When you merely have a political opinion in your head that contains anything straying from acceptable thought, you have committed a crime. No need to express the opinion or write it down. Thinking it is crime enough.
I found an example of current usage from a 2017 Washington Post story:
"A Russian senator claimed that Russophobia was so rampant in Washington that openness to dialogue was tantamount to a 'thoughtcrime' from George Orwell's '1984.'"
POP
I'm a little embarrassed to mention 19th-century British author George Eliot, who was born Mary Ann Evans. (She used the pen name because she didn't think people would take a female writer seriously.) I'm embarrassed because I've never read her books, which makes me a pretty bad English major. To make things worse, I read on a few websites that her novel "Middlemarch" is one of the greatest books in the English language.
I need to read it, I guess.
Anyway, Eliot is credited with being the first to use the word pop to describe popular music. In a letter, she wrote, "But there is too much 'Pop' for the thorough enjoyment of chamber music they give."
Now, I'm not sure how many people read that letter, but I guess the word usage spread.
That's it for these words from literature.
I have read interesting stories on words that William Shakespeare added to the English language. It's even possible I have tinkered in the topic a few times. But I have read too many to want to write yet another. If you have any favorites from Shakespeare, let me know.
Sources include Britannica, Merriam-Webster, Chadds Ford Historical Society, Interesting Literature, The Week, Wordnik, Noisli, Todoist, Lexico, Online Etymology Dictionary. Reach Bernadette at
bkwordmonger@gmail.com