Boanerges

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Βοανεργές (Boanergés), apparently from Aramaic בני רגז (bəney rəgaz, literally “sons of rage”), traditionally glossed as "sons of thunder". However, Maurice Casey argues that it is simply a misreading of Aramaic r‘am "thunder" (due to the similarity of s to the final m). This is supported by one Syriac translation of the name as bnay ra‘mâ. This appellation was given by Christ to two of his disciples, James and John (cf. Mark 3:17).

Noun

Boanerges (plural Boanergeses)

1. A vociferous preacher or orator.
   • 1835, Chandler Robbins Gilman, Legends of a log cabin, page 121:

     The groom is a Boanerges, rants twice as loud and twice as long as my Phoenix, and is, of course, in the estimate of the fanatics, twice as clever a fellow.

   • c. 1861, Charles Dickens, chapter IX, in The Uncommercial Traveller:

     I have sat under Boanerges when he has specifically addressed himself to us — us, the infants — and at this present writing I hear his lumbering jocularity (which never amused us, though we basely pretended that it did), and I behold his big round face, and I look up the inside of his outstretched coat-sleeve as if it were a telescope with the stopper on, and I hate him with an unwholesome hatred for two hours.