Question: According to the etymology in my dictionary, the word "agony" comes from a Greek word meaning "to celebrate." This seems like a pretty unlikely development! Can you explain?Answer: The ancient Greeks were fond of celebrations that included games and athletic contests. From their verb "agein," meaning both "to lead" and "to celebrate," the Greeks 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."
This word also took on the general sense of "any difficult struggle." From this sense, "agonia" additionally came to refer to the pain, whether physical or mental, that was involved in such a struggle. The Romans, as was their custom, borrowed the Greek words "agon" and "agonia" with essentially the same meanings.
"Agonia" became "agonie" in Middle French and in 14th-century Middle English, when Chaucer used it to mean "mental anguish or distress." During the 17th century, "agony" acquired the sense of "intense pain of body" and then took on the additional sense of "a violent struggle, conflict, or contest," harking back to its Greek origins.
In an interesting twist, an entirely new sense of "agony" developed in the 18th century: "a strong and often uncontrollable display (as of joy or delight)." Thus we see a shift from intense pain to intense pleasure.
Henry Fielding wrote in "Tom Jones" (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, even though the word originally came from a verb meaning "to celebrate."
The Greek "agon" also forms the root of such English words as "antagonism," "antagonize" and "protagonist."
Question: How did "yellow" come to be used for "cowardly"?
Answer: The use of "yellow" to mean "cowardly" originated as an Americanism in the middle of the 19th century. Exactly how the word acquired this sense is not known. One theory suggests that the association of yellow with cowardice might owe something to the association of yellow with livers -- and to the association of livers, in turn, with cowardice.
While it has long been known that yellowish pigmentation of the skin, called jaundice, can be caused by liver malfunction, it wasn't actually yellow but white that was the color first used to connect cowardice to the liver.
You may have heard of the medieval belief in four "humors" or bodily fluids, one of which was yellow bile, produced by the liver. (It was thought that an excess of this bile caused jaundice.)
Bile, like the other humors, was associated with personality traits; though it typically denoted irascibility and anger, it could also be credited with imbuing feistiness and courage. So a deficiency of this humor was thought to manifest itself in cowardly, mean-spirited behavior, and to cause a pale, whitish liver. This belief persisted into the 17th century, when "milk-livered," "white-livered" and the still familiar "lily-livered" were all used to mean "cowardly."
So by the 19th century, the association of the liver with cowardice was well established, as was the association of yellow with disorders of the liver. The combination of these factors may have played a role in leading to the association of yellow with cowardice.
Question: What is the difference between a chiffrobe, chiffonier and an armoire? I can't find the word "chiffrobe" in any dictionary, but I know I did not make this word up.
Answer: No, you certainly didn't -- you're just a little off on the spelling. It's "chifforobe," with an additional "o." All three terms describe pieces of furniture.
This column was prepared by the editors of Merriam-Webster's "Collegiate Dictionary," Tenth Edition. Send questions to: Merriam-Webster's Wordwatch, P.O. Box 281, 47 Federal St., Springfield, MA 01102. Merriam-Webster Inc. Dist. by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service