agon

Forms

agōn m (genitive agōnis); third declension^[1] The OLD gives the Greek genitive agōnos;^[2][3] Lewis and Short have agōnis.^[2][3] The accusative is often the Greek agōna.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀγών (agṓn, “contest, struggle”).^[2][1][4] Köbler compares ἄγω (ágō, “to lead, bring”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest checked record is in the Letters of Pliny the Younger, written AD 97–113, where a gymnastic agon was held at Vienne.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it meant a public contest in the Greek manner, gymnastic or musical, held at intervals;^[2][3] Pliny the Younger and Suetonius use it of the games.^[2][3] It also meant a struggle: Suetonius reports a statue to whose head a lock of hair was attached with a Greek inscription saying that now at last there was a real contest.^[2][3]

Christian writers used it of the spiritual struggle and of the martyr's contest, and in a wider sense of any struggle or labour.^[6][7] Medieval Latin added suffering and anguish, martyrdom, the death struggle and fate,^[8] and the MLW records it also of the judicial duel.^[4]

Timeline

• 97–113 AD – Pliny the Younger writes of a gymnastic agon at Vienne.^[2][3]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of a struggle and of the games.^[2][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of a contest.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A struggle, a contest.^[2]
2. A public exhibition of games, a gymnastic or musical contest.^[2][3]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The spiritual struggle; the contest of a martyr.^[6][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) Suffering, anguish; agony, the death struggle.^[8][7]
5. (Medieval Latin) martyrdom; fate.^[8]
6. (Medieval Latin) A judicial duel.^[4]

Related words

• English agon

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill