ἀγωνία

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /a.ɡɔː.ní.aː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /a.ɣoˈni.a/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /a.ɣoˈni.a/^[1]

Forms

ἀγωνίᾱ (agōníā) f (genitive ἀγωνίᾱς); first declension^[1] Ionic ἀγωνίη.^[2]

Etymology

It is derived from ἀγών (agṓn, “contest”) with the suffix -ία.^[1][3][4] ἀγών originally meant an assembly, especially one gathered to watch games, and comes from ἄγω (ágō, “to lead, bring together”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pindar and Herodotus use it for a contest, especially in the games.^[5][2][6]

Semantic evolution

Euripides uses it for the struggle of war, and Xenophon and the orators for competition in general.^[5][2] In the Hippocratic writers and Plato it is bodily exercise and the training of an athlete or a fighter.^[5][6] Plato compares the use of rhetoric to any other competitive skill.^[5][6]

From the 4th century BC it came to mean mental struggle: Demosthenes speaks of “fear and great anguish”, and Hyperides calls anxiety about speaking a fetter.^[5][6][3] The Stoics counted it a kind of fear.^[7] The New Testament uses it once, of Jesus “being in anguish” (Luke 22:44).^[7][6] Justinian's legislation uses it for the hearing of a case.^[6]

Modern Greek αγωνία (agonía) means anxiety, suspense and the agony of death.^[8][3] English agony (late 14th century) came through Old French and Late Latin, first of mental suffering, especially Christ's in Gethsemane.^[4]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for contests in the games.^[5][2][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus describes games “with every kind of contest”.^[6][5]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for gymnastic exercise.^[5][6]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it for anguish.^[5][6]
• 1st century AD – Luke uses it of Jesus' anguish.^[7]
• Late 14th century – English agony.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A contest, struggle for victory, especially in the games, and figuratively combat in war.^[5][2]
2. Gymnastic exercise; training, practice.^[5][6]
3. Mental struggle, anguish, anxiety.^[5][2][7]
4. (law, Byzantine) The hearing of a case.^[6]

Word family

• ἀγωνιάω (agōniáō)

Related words

• ἀγών (agṓn)
• ἀγωνίζομαι (agōnízomai)
• English agony

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b c d Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
8. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki