agon
/ˈæ.ɡoʊn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.12 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A struggle or contest; conflict; especially between the protagonist and antagonist in a literary work.
Countable
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "One way of reading Beowulf is to think of it as three agons in the hero's life[.]"
- "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."
- "Freud's originality stemmed from his aggression and ambition in his agon with biology."
- "The point, though, is that to fully and uncritically surrender to such agon against individuals is to invite one's own ethical degeneration; […]"
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”).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: agōn, ἀγών
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈæ.ɡoʊn/
- British English: /ˈæ.ɡəʊn/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
queen's guard