agon

See also: Agon, ágon, aĝon, agôn, and agöṅ

English

WOTD – 10 January 2006

Etymology

From Latin agōn, from Ancient Greek ἀγών (agṓn, “contest”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈæ.ɡəʊn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæ.ɡoʊn/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: a‧gon

Noun

agon (countable and uncountable, plural agons or agones)

1. (countable) A struggle or contest; conflict; especially between the protagonist and antagonist in a literary work.
   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 134:

     It was not ecological pressure or shortages of protein, as anthropologist Marvin Harris has claimed; institutionalized violence, as opposed to the stylized agons of hunters over grievances, was the shadow side of the Neolithic Revolution.

   • 2023 October 17, Volodymyr Yermolenko, “Europe seeks peace, not war. But will it be ready if war comes to Europe?”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The other ethical system is that of agon. Agon is a battlefield. We enter agon not to exchange, but to fight. We dream of winning but are also prepared to lose – including to lose ourselves, even in the literal sense of dying for a great cause.

2. (countable) An intellectual conflict or apparent competition of ideas.
   • 1986 March 23, Harold Bloom, “Freud, the Greatest Modern Writer”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     Freud's originality stemmed from his aggression and ambition in his agon with biology.

   • 2022, China Miéville, chapter 6, in A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto, →OCLC:

     The point, though, is that to fully and uncritically surrender to such agon against individuals is to invite one's own ethical degeneration; […]

3. (countable) A contest in ancient Greece, as in athletics or music, in which prizes were awarded.
4. (uncountable) A two-player board game played on a hexagonally-tiled board, popular in Victorian times.

   Synonym: queen's guard

Derived terms

• agonal

 

Related terms

• agony
• agonism
• antagonism
• antagonist
• protagonism
• protagonist

Translations

a struggle or contest

• Finnish: taistelu (fi)
• German: Agon (de) m
• Italian: agone (it) m
• Portuguese: agon (pt) m

a test of will

• Finnish: taistelu (fi)
• German: Agon (de) m
• Italian: agone (it) m

a contest in ancient Greece

• Finnish: agon
• German: Agon (de) m
• Italian: agone (it) m
• Polish: agon (pl) m

a two-player boardgame

• Finnish: agon
• Italian: agone (it) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} agôn (fr) m
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 懸賞付き競技（けんしょうつききょうぎ, kensyō tsuki kyōgi）

Anagrams

• Gano, Gaon, Goan, Nago, Noga, gaon, goan

Esperanto

Noun

agon

1. accusative singular of ago

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀγών (agṓn, “contest”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.ɡoːn/, [ˈäɡoːn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.ɡon/, [ˈäːɡon]

Noun

agōn m (genitive agōnis); third declension

1. a contest

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	agōn	agōnēs
Genitive	agōnis	agōnum
Dative	agōnī	agōnibus
Accusative	agōnem	agōnēs
Ablative	agōne	agōnibus
Vocative	agōn	agōnēs

Descendants

• → English: agon (“struggle”)
• → German: Agon
• Italian: agone
• → Portuguese: ágon

References

• “agon”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• agon in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• agon in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “agon”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• Lewis & Short, A Latin Dictionary

Middle English

Alternative forms

• ago, agan

Etymology

From Old English āgān (“to go out”), from Proto-West Germanic *uʀgān.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈɡɔːn/

Verb

agon

1. to go, depart

Conjugation

Conjugation of agon (irregular, suppletive)

infinitive	(to) agon, ago
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	ago	ayede, awente
2nd-person singular	agost, agest	ayedest, awentest
3rd-person singular	agoth, ageth	ayede, awente
subjunctive singular	ago
imperative singular		—
plural1	agon, ago	ayeden, ayede, awenten, awente
imperative plural	agoth, ago	—
participles	agoynge, agonde	agon, ago

¹Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

References

• “agōn, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈa.ɡɔn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɡɔn
• Syllabification: a‧gon

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀγών (agṓn).

Noun

agon m inan

1. (Ancient Greece, historical) agon (contest)

Declension

Declension of agon

	singular	plural
nominative	agon	agony
genitive	agonu	agonów
dative	agonowi	agonom
accusative	agon	agony
instrumental	agonem	agonami
locative	agonie	agonach
vocative	agonie	agony

Related terms

adjectives

• agonalny
• agoniczny
• agonistyczny

 

nouns

• agonia
• agonista
• agonistyka

 

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

agon

1. genitive plural of agona

Further reading

• agon in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Noun

agon m (plural agons or agones)

1. agon (a struggle between the protagonist and antagonist)

Vietnamese

Chemical element
Ar
Previous: clo (Cl)
Next: kali (K)

Etymology

From French argon, from English argon, from New Latin argon, from Ancient Greek ἀργόν (argón).

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔaː˧˧ ɣəwŋ͡m˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔaː˧˧ ɣəwŋ͡m˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [ʔaː˧˧ ɣəwŋ͡m˧˧]
• Phonetic: a gông

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Noun

agon

1. argon