Dictionary

agon en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• /ˈæ.ɡəʊn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈæ.ɡoʊn/ (US)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ger-der. Proto-Hellenic *agéřřō Ancient Greek ἀγείρω (ageírō) Ancient Greek ἀγών (agṓn)bor. Latin agōnbor. English agon From Latin agōn, from Ancient Greek ἀγών (agṓn, “contest”).

Meanings

1. (countable) A struggle or contest; conflict; especially between the protagonist and antagonist in a literary work.
   • 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. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 134:
   • One way of reading Beowulf is to think of it as three agons in the hero's life[.] 1999, Seamus Heaney, “Introduction”, in Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page xiv:
   • 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. 2023 October 17, Volodymyr Yermolenko, “Europe seeks peace, not war. But will it be ready if war comes to Europe?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
2. (countable) An intellectual conflict or apparent competition of ideas.
   • The point, though, is that to fully and uncritically surrender to such agon against individuals is to invite one's own ethical degeneration; […] 2022, China Miéville, chapter 6, in A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto, →OCLC:
   • Freud's originality stemmed from his aggression and ambition in his agon with biology. 1986 March 23, Harold Bloom, “Freud, the Greatest Modern Writer”, in New York Times:
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.

Forms

Deriveds

agonal

Relateds

protagonism · protagonist · agony · antagonism · antagonist · agonism

Synonyms

queen's guard

Translations (18)

fi taistelu (a struggle or contest) · pl agon (a struggle or contest) · pl agon (a contest in ancient Greece) · fi agon (a contest in ancient Greece) · it agone (a struggle or contest) · fi agon (a two-player boardgame) · it agone (a two-player boardgame) · cs agón (a contest in ancient Greece) · it agone (a contest in ancient Greece) · pt agon (a struggle or contest) · de Agon (a struggle or contest) · fi taistelu (a test of will) · pl agon (a test of will) · pl agon (a two-player boardgame) · cs agón (a struggle or contest) · de Agon (a contest in ancient Greece) · de Agon (a test of will) · it agone (a test of will)