agonic

adj

1. (not-comparable)Lacking an angle.
2. (not-comparable)Having a magnetic deviation of zero.

   “There are two lines on the earth's surface which have been called agonic lines, upon which there is no declination; and where, therefore, the needle is directed along the terrestrial meridian.”

3. (not-comparable)Synonym of agonal.
4. (not-comparable)Characterized by agony.

   “By cultivating his own reason, the pupil could stand back from the agonic scenes in Hades and decide the merits of the case after [François] Fénelon's artifice had absorbed him passionately in the dialogue: […]”

   “Thus, the opening citation, the eleventh section of The Case of Wagner, the passage which perhaps is the zenith of [Friedrich] Nietzsche's irony, is succeeded by the brief agonic cry of the twelfth section: […]”

   “Eagerly following the convention of crick-crack stories, his audience, entranced by Solibo's words and the rhythmic sound of the gwo-ka, duly responds Patat'si to Solibo's agonic cry.”

5. (not-comparable)Of a mode of social interaction based on threats, displays of power, or inducements of anxiety.

   “[I]n some primates, especially chimpanzees, the hedonic mode of social communication predominates group interactions. […] This is marked by much physical contact, stroking, hugging, lip smacking and sharing. The social interactions are more relaxed, as are the individual members of the group, and there is much focus on physical contact. This is in marked contrast to other more primitive primates, where the agonic mode dominates social behaviour.”

   “Depictions of agonic displays, on the other hand, increased from the opening phase of the campaign to the debate period and then droped off as Election Day approached. The drop-off in the last stage of the campaign supports the expectation that expressive behavior would be more positive and less varied over time, with the added nuance that agonic displays increased in the debate period before tapering off.”

   “Moreover, these essential rules form rigid boundaries separating "us" from "them," friends from enemies, as in [Carl] Schmitt's influential work, and are delineated within political relations described as agonic. Eschewing liberal bourgeois notions of politics as compromise exposes this agonic or polemical quality of the political.”

6. (not-comparable, obsolete)Occurring shortly before death; agonal.

   “A study of the conditions under which agonic invagination of the intestine occurs will not be out of place in considering the etiology of intussusception. Agonic invagination is very much more common in children than adults, the proportion being, according to [Hermann] Nothnagel, one to fifty. [Luther Emmett] Holt says that agonic invagination is met with in 80 per cent. of the post mortems on infants.”

   “The author is entirely at one with Brockbank that platelets are agonic products of red cells and dismisses the other theories shortly.”

noun

1. Synonym of agonic line.

   “One of these [agonic lines] passes over the American and the other over the Asiatic continent, and the former has consequently been called the American and the latter the Asiatic agonic. […] On the west of the Asiatic agonic the declination is west, on the east it is east.”

   “It should be noted that the period of 2000 years deduced from the average motion of the agonics is identical with that which we obtain if we suppose that the secondary magnetic system revolves around the equator at the average rate of the two secondary poles, viz: ³⁶⁰⁄_(0.194) = 1860 years.”