Also 4 agonye, 5–7 agonie. [prob. formed by Wyclif on the L. agōnia of the Vulgate; though also found in 14th c. Fr., agonie. The L. is a. Gr. ἀγωνία contest, hence, mental struggle, anguish; f. ἀγών, AGON q.v.] The development of the senses in Gr. was:—1. A struggle for victory in the games; 2. Any struggle; 3. Mental struggle, anguish, e.g., Christ’s anguish in Gethsemane. But the historical appearance of the meanings in Eng. was as follows:
1. Anguish of mind, sore trouble or distress, a paroxysm of grief. Agony column, the column of a newspaper that contains special advertisements, particularly those for missing relatives or friends, and thus often gives evidence of great distress.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Miller’s T., 266. This man is falle … In som woodnesse, or in som agonye.
1494. Fabyan, V. cxvii. 91. Fredegunda … sore was abasshed, and in great fere and agony.
1611. Bible, 2 Macc. iii. 14. There was no small agonie throughout the whole citie.
1769. Junius Lett., xix. 83. He sunk under the charge in an agony of confusion and despair.
1863. Burton, Bk. Hunter, 40. It was agony to him to hear the beggar’s cry of distress.
1880. Times, 28 Dec., 10/1. A cryptogram in the agony column.
b. Hence, Intensity or paroxysm of pleasure.
a. 1725. Pope, Odyssey, X. 492. With cries and agonies of wild delight.
1877. Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., v. 138. He struck the marble in an agony of pleasure and content, bidding it ‘Speak’!
2. spec. The mental struggle or anguish of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.
1382. Wyclif, Luke xxii. 43. And he maad in agonye [ether angwische or stryf] preiede lengere. [Vulg. Et factus in agonia, prolixius orabat.]
1526. Tindale, ibid. He was in an agonye.
1557. Genev., 1611, and Revised, ibid. And being in an agonie, he prayed more earnestly.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 793. As cried Christ ere His agony.
3. The convulsive throes, or pangs of death; the death struggle. (med.L. agon mortis.) Seldom now used in this sense without qualification, as agony of death, mortal agony.
1549. Compl. Scotl., xiv. 121. Quhen darius vas in the agonya and deitht thrau.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 867. To moue wilde laughter in the throate of death? It cannot be, it is impossible: Mirth cannot moue a soule in agonie.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1766), I. 432. On a sudden she fell into the agony of death.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., I. 800/1. The death-struggle, or agony.
4. Extreme bodily suffering, such as to produce writhing or throes of the body.
1607. Dekker, Westward Hoe (1873), II. 347. O quickly, quickly, shees sicke and taken with an Agony.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 861. Here in perpetual agonie and pain.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 157. The agony the poor woman was in.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 850. Brain-feverous in his heat and agony. Ibid. (1864), Boadicea, 84. Ran the land with Roman slaughter, multitudinous agonies.
5. A struggle or contest. (Rarely without some shade of the preceding senses.)
1677. Decay Chr. Piety, 408 (T.). Till he have thus denudated himself of all these encumbrances he is utterly unqualified for these agonies.
1859. De Quincey, Cæsars, Wks. X. 89. He was most truly in an agony, according to the original meaning of that word; for the conflict was great between two master principles of his nature.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., VII. XVIII. ii. 117. Which lasted … above three hours; and was the crisis, or essential agony, of the Battle.
