hector, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hector n.

also bully-hector

[an ironic use of the Trojan hero Hector, son of Priam and Hecuba, husband of Andromache, ‘the prop or stay of Troy’; thus note Shadwell, The Squire of Alsatia (1688): ‘They are all of them as stout as Hector’]

a blustering, swaggering bully, a thug, a bouncer, esp. of a brothel.

1631		T. Heywood Faire Maid of the West Pt I II i: I could wish that ere I past this field That I could meet some Hector, so your eyes Might witnesse what my selfe have oft repeated, Namely that I am a valiant.
1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 22 25 Oct.–1 Nov. 187: Of Sodom Ladies and their Trades, / Of their Hectors, and Trappans.
1668		‘P.R.’ Whores Dialogue 5: I can [...] rant it and swear with domineering Hectors.
1675		Head Nugae Venales 258: I was in Holbourn, where I saw two high hot Huffing Hectors (about three-quarters Drunk).
1678		Behn Sir Patient Fancy V i: For he’s the leudest Hector in the Town; he has all the Vices of Youth, Whoring, Swearing, Drinking, Damning, Fighting,—and a thousand more, numberless and nameless.
1689		R. L’Estrange Erasmus Colloquies 139: A Ruffling Hector that lives upon the High way.
1696		Character of the Beaux 18: Another sort of Beau, is what we generally style a Hector, or Bully-Beau.
1700		T. Brown Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 108: As notable a conqueror, as monsieur Boufflers, or any of the French bullies and hectors.
a.1701		N. Ward Revels of the Gods 13: [You] sit like Swine, sotting over your Nectar, / With Bacchus, that Beast, and Mars, that Bully-Hector.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 107: To adorn the Hector’s Blockhead, with a lac’d Hat, Beaux like, under his left Arm.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 24: I hate, she cry’d, a Hector, a Drone without a Sting.
1721		Penkethman’s Jests 24: As you live, indeed, with three or four well-looking Fellows about you, as fine as Hectors.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 192: The former of which Planet is of a thievish, cheating, deceitful Influence; and the other hath Dominion over all Whores, Bawds, and Pimps; and, joyn’d with Mercury, over all Trepanners and Hectors.
1746		Poor Robin n.p.: What does that thief Mercury do with Venus? Why even the very same that hectors and padders do with ladies of pleasure [N].
1746		W. Dunkin Parson’s Revels (2010) 79: I make the proudest Hectors quake.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 378: He now reigned chief Hector of the place, with unquestioned authority.
1771		Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) I 149: I have seen him as much afraid of that overbearing Hector, as ever schoolboy was of his pedagogue.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 190: This address alarmed me [...] for I was no Hector, and the tour of Spain not yet finished.
c.1815		J.K. Paulding Bucktails (1847) III ii: What sayest thou, my bully Hector?
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 147: The Hector who had spoken so warmly and critically in Nigel’s behalf, stood out now chivalrously.
1832		Satirist (London) 3 June 182/3: But now—how deplorably changed, / From the Hectors we then used to be; / In our innermost wheel-works deranged, / By the terrible shakes of the Free!
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 12 Mar. n.p.: In other respects he is much of a hector / And the ladies find him a constant protector.
1850		E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime in Poetical Works 2 (1878) 334: O! thou base and blear-eyed Hangman, / Rakehell, Hector, Squint-eye, Shark.
1855		Macaulay Hist. of England III Ch. 16 🌐 To play the Hector at cockpits and hazard tables.
1884		Sporting Times 22 Nov. 3/2: As for those bold Hectors who ‘talk kicking’ so loud — at a distance [etc].
1904		H. Day Kin o’ Katadan 85: Oh, mother’s full o’ hector ’bout I’m goin’ to be a sport,/ Jest because I’m on the jury and a-goin’ down to court.

In compounds

Hector’s office (n.)

a brothel.

1669

Life and Death of Damaris Page 1: [She] was most notably famous for keeping a house of, what shall I call it, for it had divers names [...] the Hectors Office, a Vaulting-School, the amorous Chace, a Brothel, a Stew, the huck-strings Accademy, the hole in the Wall, &c.

In phrases

...as/than Hector [? euph. for SE hell]

(US) used in a variety of phrs., e.g. dead as Hector, mad as Hector, meaner than Hector.

1908		DN III 304: Dead as Hector [...] Entirely dead. Very common.
1966–68		in DARE II 953: (Qu. GG40, .. Violently angry) Mad as (old) Hector; (Qu. HH22b, . . A very mean person. . ‘He’s meaner than.’) [...] Hector.