Language Of Confusion: Acting!, Part II

Back to looking at words related to act, which are all descended from the Proto Indo European root ag-, to drive, draw out, or move. This week, all the words start with ag-, too.
 
First, agent showed up in the late fifteenth century, initially meaning one who acts, then a natural force that produces something in the mid sixteenth century, and a deputy or representative at the end of the sixteenth century (it didn’t mean a secret agent until 1916!). Agency showed up in the mid sixteenth century, where it meant an active operation, then a mode of producing effect, and then way later in 1861 it meant a place where business is done. Both words are from the classical Latin agentem, from the verb agere, which we talked about last week as being the origin word for act. It kind of seems like agent replaced what actor used to be. And then it came to mean spy. There’s also agenda, which showed up in the mid seventeenth century, which is directly taken from a Latin word. And it also is from agere, which is from ag-.
 
Next is less obvious. Agility showed up in the early fifteenth century, a little before agile. It’s from the Old French agilité, from the classical Latin agilitatem, which is just agility, which is from agilis (agile), and that’s from agere. It does make sense that the word for movement would also give us the word for nimble and quick.
 
Slightly less sensible is agitate, which showed up in the mid sixteenth century, slightly after agitation. Both are from the classical Latin agitare, to drive (forward), which is from agere, and since ag- does mean to drive, I guess I can see it. To drive, to put in motion, to agitate.
 
How about agony? It showed up in the late fourteenth century from the Old French agonie/agoine, and Late Latin agonia. That’s from the Greek ag­­onia, which means agony or anguish, from agon, to struggle, to put in motion, which is from ag-. Kind of a journey, but I guess it makes sense.
 
And related to that is antagonist, which showed up in the late sixteenth century, a few decades after antagonize. It’s from the French antagoniste and Late Latin antagonista, which is from the Greek antagonistes, competitors. That’s from antagonizesthai, to compete, where the anti means against and the rest is from agon. To antagonize is to struggle against. And yeah, protagonist is from the same place. The only difference is the prefix is from proto, which is from the Proto Indo European root per-, which means forward. A protagonist is driving the agony forward.
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Orbis Latinus

Language of Confusion: Words That Hurt

I’m still on the morbid etymology kick. What can I say? It’s October.

Death

Death comes from the Old English deað, which is just death with a thorn in for the th sound. It comes from the Proto Germanic dauthuz and Proto Indo European dheu-, to die. Which is appropriate, as that’s where die came from, by way of the Proto Germanic dawjan. PS, the die that is the plural of dice is not even remotely related, which shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Kill

Kill showed up in the early thirteenth century as a word for strike or hit. It didn’t mean to death-ify someone until a century later! Unless it comes from the Old English word cwellan, which means to kill or murder. I mean, that would make sense, but it’s one of those ones that they aren’t sure of. What they are sure of however is that cwellen is the origin word for quell though. Because you know that makes so much sense.

Hurt

Hurt also showed up in the early thirteenth century not just meaning to injure but also to bump/knock into. Sure. Why not. It comes from the Old French hurter, ram or strike, so apparently it was English that switched things up. Its earlier origins are less certain. It would make sense if it came from the Frankish hurt, which means ram, but it might be Celtic in origin, too. Basically, it’s a really hard to pin down word.

Agony

Another cheery entry! Agony first showed up in the late fourteenth century meaning only mental suffering. It comes from the Old French agonie/agoine, anguish or terror, and Late Latin agonia, which is just taken from the Greek agonia, anguish. It originally meant a mental struggle for victory or a struggle for victory in the games, coming from agon, which could mean struggle or game. Well, I guess struggling to win a game is agony…Or maybe that’s just for kids who were bad at Physical Education.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Old English-English Dictionary

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

Orbis Latinus