Make Your Point > Archived Issues > ANTAGONIZE
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pronounce
ANTAGONIZE:
Say it "an TAG uh nize."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
When you think of the word agony, you usually think of pain, heartbreak, and how the whole ninth grade was ruined by acne or frizzy bangs, right? But agony isn't just pain; as I've mentioned before, it has another meaning, a very old one: "a contest, or a struggle for victory."
That's good to know when we're talking about stories, where there's the good guy, the protagonist (meaning the first contestant, the original struggler), and the bad guy, the antagonist, (the contestant or struggler who works against the first one).
It's the bad guy who always seems to be antagonizing (competing with, or just bugging) the good guy. Or gal.
Libby and Sabrina remain locked in this kind of agony: this struggle, or competition. If they didn't, we wouldn't have a plot.
With this kind of agony in mind, see if you can come up with a four-syllable adjective that means "involving a struggle to compete or win:" it's agon_____. As in, "Why was Sabrina's high school, or any high school on TV, so agon_____? Oh, right. Plot."
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
"Antagonize" has Greek roots that literally mean "to struggle against" or "to compete with." Inside this word, you can almost see anti, meaning "against," and agonizesthai, meaning "to compete."
If we happen to be talking about muscle groups or other physical forces, then to antagonize something is to work against it: to do the opposite movement, or to cancel it out.
But generally speaking, to antagonize people or groups is to bother them and treat them like an enemy, as if you're trying to pull them into a fight or a competition.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
It's a verb, the transitive kind: "she keeps antagonizing him," "their comments antagonized the whole community."
Other forms:
There's "antagonized" and "antagonizing."
For an adjective, use "antagonizing," "antagonistic;" or, less commonly, "antagonistical." The adverb is "antagonistically."
For a noun, pick whichever sounds best to you: "antagonism;" "antagonization;" or, if you like your nouns compact and elegant, "antagony," pronounced "an TAG uh nee."
The people doing the antagonizing can be called "antagonists" or "antagonizers."
how to use it:
Talk about people or groups antagonizing other people or groups, often by making statements or hurling insults, and often on purpose but sometimes accidentally. "Ignore these trolls; they're just trying to antagonize you for liking Beyoncé."
Although it's usually people doing the antagonizing, you can also talk about how certain statements, actions, decisions, and events antagonize people. Even someone's silence, or someone's lack of action, can be antagonizing.
examples:
"'Whenever somebody misses a question, [Shawn Gause] cackles this really loud, horribly grating cackle. And if it's an easy question, he'll be like, "How could anybody not know that?" Everybody else is just trying to have fun, but he treats it like it's the friggin' Super Bowl.' Gause has antagonized nearly every person at McSorley's, including Larry Olberding, his friend and former teammate."
— The Onion, 1 May 2002
"Shelley and Hogg's decision to publish Shelley's Necessity of Atheism, together with their sending copies of it to the conservative Oxford dons, seems more calculated to antagonize authority than to persuade by rational argument... The Oxford authorities acted swiftly and decisively, expelling both Shelley and Hogg."
— PoetryFoundation.org's biography of Percy Bysshe Shelley, 2020
has this page helped you understand "antagonize"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "antagonize" without saying "irk" or "rile up."
try it out:
Although antagonizing is usually harsh and irritating, it can also be gentle, a way of being playful. You might enjoy a bit of lighthearted, good-natured antagonism with your friends.
The characters in Casey McQuiston's bestseller certainly seem to:
"'He's not my friend. He's someone I like to antagonize all the time, and one time I talked to him about something real.'" ...
"He can almost hear Henry roll his eyes, and he's thankful for it, the familiar comfort of antagonism." ...
"He's grinning like he does when he's drinking in a challenge, like nothing in the world pleases him more than Alex's antagonizing elbow in his side."
With these examples in mind, talk about a relationship, real or fictional, that seems pleasantly antagonistic to you. What are the ways in which these people gently or playfully antagonize each other?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
This month, our game is called "Fix the Grand Spell which was Cast by Short Words."
(Or, in monstrously inflated terms, the game is called "Rewrite the Extraordinary Incantation which was Executed by Monosyllabic Vocables.")
In each issue, I'll offer a familiar quote that I've heartlessly hypertrophied with polysyllabic transplants. You'll restore the quote to its original version, with each word just one syllable long.
That is to say, I'll share a fat, fake draft of a famed quote; you'll say the trim real one.
For example, if I say "Exploit an opportunity while the situation allows," then you say, "Make hay while the sun shines." If I say, "Durations remedy every laceration," then you say, "Time heals all wounds."
From the previous issue:
"I experience the desire--the desire for velocity!" --> "I feel the need--the need for speed!"
Try this today: "We constitute such materials as sleeping-hallucinations constitute."
Say that, but in words of one beat each.
Clues:
Where it's from: originally a play, but a popular version of it appears in a movie, too.
The year we first heard it: 1623.
review this word:
A. BUDDY UP TO.
B. TALK DOWN TO.
C. TAKE UNDER YOUR WING.
2. The bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel has challenged nonprofits to get more aggressive about helping patients compare drugs. "They weren't bold enough," he said. He believes they were afraid of antagonizing _____.
A. the patients and their families
B. the companies that make the drugs
C. the complex web of information about the drugs
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
When you think of the word agony, you usually think of pain, heartbreak, and how the whole ninth grade was ruined by acne or frizzy bangs, right? But agony isn't just pain; as I've mentioned before, it has another meaning, a very old one: "a contest, or a struggle for victory."
"Antagonize" has Greek roots that literally mean "to struggle against" or "to compete with." Inside this word, you can almost see anti, meaning "against," and agonizesthai, meaning "to compete."
Part of speech:
Talk about people or groups antagonizing other people or groups, often by making statements or hurling insults, and often on purpose but sometimes accidentally. "Ignore these trolls; they're just trying to antagonize you for liking Beyoncé."
"'Whenever somebody misses a question, [Shawn Gause] cackles this really loud, horribly grating cackle. And if it's an easy question, he'll be like, "How could anybody not know that?" Everybody else is just trying to have fun, but he treats it like it's the friggin' Super Bowl.' Gause has antagonized nearly every person at McSorley's, including Larry Olberding, his friend and former teammate."
Explain the meaning of "antagonize" without saying "irk" or "rile up."
Although antagonizing is usually harsh and irritating, it can also be gentle, a way of being playful. You might enjoy a bit of lighthearted, good-natured antagonism with your friends.
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
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