hector

\HEK-ter\

verb

1 : to play the bully : swagger

2 : to intimidate or harass by bluster or personal pressure

The most famous HECTOR, to which this verb form vaguely relates, refers to the greatest soldier in the Trojan war, eldest son of King Priam of Troy, killed in a bloody duel by Achilles. In Greek the word HECTOR means "to hold fast." The above verb, however, points to a London gang of the mid-seventeenth century who called themselves "HECTORS," perhaps referencing the gallant Greek warrior, but it was their hooligan behavior that made the word HECTOR synonymous with bullying.

According to babynamewizard.com, the popularity of the name HECTOR peaked in America in 2005 at the rank of 166.

The first two HECTORs that appear in a google search are both fighters: HECTOR Hammond and HECTOR Lombard. The former is a comic supervillain, nemesis to the Green Hornet, bearing an enormous brain due to purposeful self-exposure to meteor radiation. The latter is a Cuban mixed martial arts fighter, an aquarius, middle name "shango."* The third HECTOR I stumble on is HECTOR Lavoe—full name: HECTOR Juan Perez Martinez—a Puerto Rican Salsa singer who succumbed to AIDS in 1993 after a failed suicided attempt jumping from the ninth floor of a Regency Hotel five years prior. The fourth is HECTOR Rodriguez, an internist in the city where I live, and the fifth is HECTOR Elizondo of Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries fame.

I don't know what any of this means.

R.I.P., HECTOR Juan Perez Martinez.

*Shango is the God of thunder and lightening in the Yoruba religion. You know, in case anyone is wondering.