I don't think that I posted this before but if I did please forgive the repetition. When I received the word of the day more than a year ago it made me think of my Van -agon.

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Meaning of Agon

 

Volkswagen marketing people who named the Vanagon were probably linguists with a sense of humour. See below the dictionary definition of "agon" from the same Greek origin that give us "agony" the word agon implies a love/hate struggle. 

 

Perhaps Volkswagen already knew the hate provoked by leaking head gaskets would be tempered by love of the many clever features and compact design that Vanagons and Westfalias offer; the ones that keep us in the state of Agon.

 

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Word of the Day for Thursday August 9, 2001:

 

   agon \AH-gahn; ah-GOHN\,

   plural agones \uh-GOH-neez\ noun:

   A struggle or contest; conflict; especially between the

   protagonist and antagonist in a literary work.

 

     Conflicts about moral claims are part of what it means to

     be human, and a political ideal stripped of sentimentality

     and the utopian temptation is one committed to the notion

     that political life is a permanent agon between clashing,

     even incompatible goods.

     --Jean Bethke Elshtain, [1]Real Politics

 

     It is the irresolvable love-hate agon between men and women

     that drives all cultures.

     --Lawrence Osborne, "False goddess," [2]Salon, June 28,

     2000

 

     Almost every poem Auden wrote in the weeks before and after

     his arrival in New York portrayed the agon of an artist in

     combat with his gift.

     --Edward Mendelson, [3]Later Auden

     _________________________________________________________

 

   Agon comes from Greek agon, "a struggle or contest." It is

   related to agony.

 

References

 

   1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801856000/lexico

   2. http://www.salon.com/

   3. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374526990/lexico

 

 

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