Word: agon
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...silver or bronze, just a simple olive wreath from the sacred tree outside the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. But those leaves were the sole prize; there was no concept of place and show -- only winning. Contestants cried, "The wreath or death!" In fact, the Greek word for contest, agon, has become rather painful in English. But the rewards of victory were enormous: places of honor, money, sinecures and the admiration of nonathletes -- a word in Greek, idiotai, that has also survived in one form in English. Get thee to a gymnasium quickly...