Agony is something to be avoided at all costs, right? In fact, it’s such a strong word that it’s barely used in English if the speaker isn’t exaggerating. You might hear, “It was agony” about taking an exam or hiking up a steep mountain trail, but it’s usually an obvious exaggeration for comic or rhetorical effect. What is true agony these days? Some would say childbirth without painkillers or being tortured by the Taliban or a serial killer, while others may describe undertaking an ultra-marathon or Olympic training. “The agony of defeat” is something you hear quote often from sportscasters who are tying to romanticize the Olympics experience of athletes who have trained their whole lives, only to screw up on the most important day of their careers.
In the Corpus of American English, agony is found in just two main contexts. One describes actual agony — “thrashing and hissing in agony,” “oh the agony of pain,” and “I fall to the ground in agony,” while the other context is more loose and colorful: “six months of agony waiting for a new Nirvana record,” “I eliminate my agony by playing PlayStation 4,” and “the agony of wanting to eat evening snacks.” Nevertheless, whether real or imagined, almost every entry of agony captures the essence of some kind of pain.
Because of this, it may come as a surprise to find out that the original meaning of agony comes from a Greek word that meant “to celebrate.” To put this celebration in context, it’s helpful to remember that the ancient Greeks often included athletic contests and games in their celebrations. Interestingly, the word is still quite associated with sports and the Olympics in particular, so this connection seems to be intact, if only in the most minor way. The word came about from the Greek root verb “agein,” which means both “to lead” and “to celebrate.” Greek speakers then derived the noun “agon” to denote a public gathering for such celebrations. The struggle to win the prize in the athletic contests then came to be called “agonia.” The competitiveness, the drama, the agony of Ancient Greek sport. It was all captured in this one dramatic word.
From here, the word took on wider meanings. It was expanded to mean any sort of difficult and pronounced struggle, whether physical or mental. The Romans then borrowed the word from the Greeks and it spread into the various languages of Europe, including in Middle French in the 14th century, where it became “agonie.” Chaucer used this version of the word to describe a strictly mental and emotional kind of distress. In the 17th century, “agony” acquired the meaning of “intense pain of body” and then took on the additional meaning of “a violent struggle, conflict, or contest,” harkening back to its Greek origins.
A surprise twist came in the 18th century, when the word began to be used, once again, to mean “strong and often uncontrollable display, as of joy or delight.” This sneaky word had again shifted in meaning from intense pain back to intense pleasure. During this brief interlude into pleasure, Henry Fielding wrote in Tom Jones in 1749: “The first agonies of joy which were felt on both sides are indeed beyond my power to describe.”
Nevertheless, the distressful senses of “agony” still predominate today, even though the word originally came from a Greek verb meaning “to celebrate.” The original verb root from Greek, “agon,” also forms the root of such English words as “antagonism,” “antagonize” and “protagonist.” Greek root words are never short of drama and versatility and this one follows that tradition slavishly.