agonal

English

Etymology

From agon +‎ -al; cognate with agony.

Adjective

agonal (comparative more agonal, superlative most agonal)

1. Of or pertaining to struggle, competition or conflict; of or pertaining to an agon.
   • 1994, Edward Kuhlman, Agony in Education: The Importance of Struggle in the Process of Learning, Bergin & Garvey, page 70:

     Even the agonal games which began with the ancient Greeks were playful in their singular devotion to deities. Games were agonal demonstrations of transcendence.

   • 2004, Hans van Wees, Greek Warfare: Myth and Realities, Bloomsbury Academic, page 135:

     The agonal spirit was strong enough to inspire 'shame' at a failure to fight when the enemy offered battle, but not so strong that it made armies accept battle under any circumstances.

   • 2006, Stan Goff, Sex & War, Soft Skull Press, page 175:

     It is because the very basis of their world view, emerging from the deepest recesses of their psyches where their most basic identities were formed from birth – long before they experienced the agonal reality of class – affectively consolidated in the emotional hothouses of their families, is sexuality.

2. Of or pertaining to the pain of death.
   • 1894, Ludvig Hektoen, “A Specimen of Four Healed, Ascending, Ileal Invaginations, Symmetrical and Equidistant”, in Judson Daland, Joseph Price Tunis, Boardman Reed, Walter Lytle Pyle, editors, International Medical Magazine, Volume 2, page 1010:

     The similarity of these persistent invaginations to the agonal is quite marked; like the agonal, they are multiple, rather short, they are in the ileum, and they are ascending, which is not at all an uncommon feature of the invaginations of death. Agonal invaginations in the adult are, however, uncommon and seldom found; but, in spite of this fact, the suggestion is near at hand that perhaps the multiple, healed invaginations here described are, as it were, persistent agonal formations, the death-struggle implied terminating in favor of the patient.

   • 1981, Michael C. Powanda, Peter G. Canonico, Infection: the Physiologic and Metabolic Responses of the Host, Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press, page 117:

     In contrast, severe infections are characterized by the development of hypoglycemia during the agonal stages of the disease process as a result of an impaired capacity of the liver to synthesize glucose (LaNoue et al., 1968b; Yeung, 1970; McCallum and Berry, 1973).

   • 2003, Dick F. Swaab, Human Hypothalamus: Basic and Clinical Aspects, Part I, Elsevier, page 23:

     The agonal effects associated with prolonged illness may influence the pH, and subsequently a number of chemical substances in the brain.

Derived terms

• agonal breathing
• agonal gasp
• agonal respiration
• preagonal

Related terms

• agon
• agony

Translations

relating to an agon

relating to the time before death

• Polish: agonalny (pl), agoniczny (pl) (obsolete)

Anagrams

• Algona, Angola, Langao, analog

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [aɡoˈnaːl]

• Audio

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ago‧nal

Adjective

agonal (strong nominative masculine singular agonaler, not comparable)

1. agonistic
2. agonal

Declension

Positive forms of agonal (uncomparable)

number & gender		singular			plural
		masculine	feminine	neuter
predicative		er ist agonal	sie ist agonal	es ist agonal	sie sind agonal
strong declension (without article)	nominative	agonaler	agonale	agonales	agonale
	genitive	agonalen	agonaler	agonalen	agonaler
	dative	agonalem	agonaler	agonalem	agonalen
	accusative	agonalen	agonale	agonales	agonale
weak declension (with definite article)	nominative	der agonale	die agonale	das agonale	die agonalen
	genitive	des agonalen	der agonalen	des agonalen	der agonalen
	dative	dem agonalen	der agonalen	dem agonalen	den agonalen
	accusative	den agonalen	die agonale	das agonale	die agonalen
mixed declension (with indefinite article)	nominative	ein agonaler	eine agonale	ein agonales	(keine) agonalen
	genitive	eines agonalen	einer agonalen	eines agonalen	(keiner) agonalen
	dative	einem agonalen	einer agonalen	einem agonalen	(keinen) agonalen
	accusative	einen agonalen	eine agonale	ein agonales	(keine) agonalen

Further reading

• “agonal” in Duden online

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian agonale.

Adjective

agonal m or n (feminine singular agonală, masculine plural agonali, feminine and neuter plural agonale)

1. agonal

Declension

Declension of agonal

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	agonal		agonală	agonali	agonale
	definite	agonalul		agonala	agonalii	agonalele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	agonal		agonale	agonali	agonale
	definite	agonalului		agonalei	agonalilor	agonalelor

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin [Term?].

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aɡoˈnal/ [a.ɣ̞oˈnal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: a‧go‧nal

Adjective

agonal m or f (masculine and feminine plural agonales)

1. agonistic

Further reading

• “agonal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014