Echo

The source of this familiar word was an ancient Greek myth. Echo was a nymph who was so fond of talking, she always had to have the last word. Zeus, the king of the gods (Jupiter to the Romans) was always fooling around with nymphs (as well as women and goddesses), and he persuaded Echo to keep his wife Hera (Juno to the Romans) busy with talking, so Hera wouldn't catch Zeus in the act with a nymph. When Hera found out what Echo had been doing, Hera cursed the nymph, and took away her voice except to repeat the last words she heard. "You'll still have the last word," Hera told her, "but you can never speak first."

Echo fell in love with a beautiful young man. I guess he could be called an Adonis, but that's a different myth. The young man who attracted Echo was named Narcissus, another word you'll probably recognize. Even though he was very handsome, he had never been interested in a romantic relationship. Echo followed him around, and hoped and hoped he would fall in love with her, too. But she could not start a conversation with him. One day, when he was out hunting with some friends, he called out to them, "Where are you?" Echo answered back, "Where are you?" "Come here!" he called out. And "Come here!" she repeated. At the same time, she went to him, expecting him to throw her arms around him.

However, when he saw Echo, Narcissus rejected her. He did not want to return her love for him. Heartsick, Echo continued to follow him around, repeating what he said, until she faded away, with nothing left but her voice.

As for Narcissus, he earned his own entry here as the name for a flower.

English word: This ancient Greek story remains in our language as the word echo, a repeating sound, caused by sound waves bouncing off hard surfaces, and then bouncing off again.