Wiktionary

agon

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

English

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WOTD – 10 January 2006
 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Noun

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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

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Translations

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

Anagrams

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Esperanto

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Noun

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agon

  1. accusative singular of ago

Latin

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Noun

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agōn m (genitive agōnis); third declension

  1. a contest

Declension

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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

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

References

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  • “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

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Verb

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agon

  1. to go, depart

Conjugation

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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

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Old English

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Verb

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āgon

  1. plural present indicative of āgan

Polish

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Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀγών (agṓn).

Noun

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agon m inan

  1. (Ancient Greece, historical) agon (contest)
Declension
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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
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adjectives
nouns

Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

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agon

  1. genitive plural of agona

Further reading

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  • agon in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

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Noun

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agon m (plural agons or agones)

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

Vietnamese

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

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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  • (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [ʔaː˧˧ ɣəwŋ͡m˧˧], [ʔaːk̚˧˦ ɣəwŋ͡m˧˧], [ʔaːk̚˧˨ʔ ɣəwŋ͡m˧˧]
  • (Huế) IPA(key): [ʔaː˧˧ ɣəwŋ͡m˧˧], [ʔaːk̚˦˧˥ ɣəwŋ͡m˧˧], [ʔaːk̚˨˩ʔ ɣəwŋ͡m˧˧]
  • (Saigon) IPA(key): [ʔaː˧˧ ɣəwŋ͡m˧˧], [ʔaːk̚˦˥ ɣəwŋ͡m˧˧], [ʔaːk̚˨˩˨ ɣəwŋ͡m˧˧]
  • Phonetic spelling: a gông, ác gông, ạc gông

Noun

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agon

  1. argon
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