Children are very well known for being noisy, boisterous, and rather obnoxious. I'm sure each of us has - at one point or another - heard the shrill cry of an upset child in the grocery store, only to later find the bedraggled parents of said child just trying to hold it all together so they can survive their own trip and get home safely. Nowadays, I just send those parents an encouraging smile, for I have found myself on the receiving end of that struggle.
Today was an example of the stentorian nature of a collective group of children, as four girls ran back and forth along the hallway of a friend's house with dress-up shoes, all shouting in delight because they have friends to play with. It is both a blessing and a curse, though admittedly mostly a curse on my ears and my patience and a blessing on almost every other account. At least they had fun, though, and when we all went outside to be able to spread out a little better, they stayed mostly out of danger.
Stentorian | sten-ˈtȯr-ē-ən: adjective: extremely loud
Merriam-Webster brings it home again today with a really cool fact about stentorian, as well as its noun counterpart, stentor. Both are based on an ancient Greek herald named Stentor, whose voice, according to Homer's Illiad, was as loud as fifty men together. It is his name that both words derive from.
Stentorian is a word best used for voices rather than just any kind of noise, as it can be used to describe a voice that has great range as well as volume, particularly after knowing its etymology. That being said, with the simplicity of its definition, it can also be used for any noise, as opposed to the typical words that are often seen in works, including booming, clamorous, and even resounding.
Stentorian | stenˈtɔːr.i.ən: adjective: using a very loud voice, or (of a voice) very loud
In one of the examples used by Brian Jacques, whose book, Loamhedge, is my muse for today's word, stentorian was used to express the loud, booming quality of a deep voice. It was also used, however, to describe snores of all things, which left me chuckling. I honestly couldn't imagine how noisy stentorian snores are, but I'm not sure I would want to, either.
For my main example, though, I want to show how perfect stentorian is to describe a voice and how beautiful of a picture it paints for the reader. Anyone who would hear this character speak would have to listen, which is probably part of the reason he's Log a Log.
Log a Log Briggy waved over to them, his stentorian bass voice booming over the waters. "Stop there, friends, I've sent a crew to git the boats. They'll pick ye up an' bring ye over!"
I can almost imagine using stentorian for other voices as well, for creatures that speak differently, such as a deep, stentorian roar of a lion. How would you use it? What other fun words do you enjoy to replace loud? Tell me all that and more, and until tomorrow, happy reading!
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