Word Watch: hector

President Trump: hectored by Congress?

HECTOR: used by Kennedy on The Five, July 9, 2020

Kennedy said, speaking of the U.S. Supreme Court, “They didn’t want the Congress to be able to hector the President with superfluous requests.”

Did Kennedy get it right? Did she mean heckle? Or did she use hector correctly?

She used hector correctly.

To hector means to bully or intimidate through loud and unpleasantly forceful behavior.

Synonyms include heckle, hound, badger, bait…you get the idea.

Used in Print: An opinion piece in the New York Times from Dec. 18, 2014, was entitled, “Hectoring Venezuela on Human Rights.”