“Agonistes”

Put up your dukes, writers of “agonistes.” If you think it’s clever to apply this epithet to a politician, it’s you who has earned this Greek nickname meaning “the struggler” or “the combatant.”

A word that sports a tweed jacket and pokes you in the chest with its pipe, agonistes famously appears in the titles of poems by Milton and Eliot as well as a political biography of President Nixon. It’s used in newspapers and magazines about 40 times a year, often in premortem political obituaries. Used in a headline, this word guarantees a read quite like Milton, only not as breezy and lighthearted.

Not counting plays and books, a LexisNexis search shows it appeared 33 times in the last year.

Slate magazine was the most frequent offender, applying agonistes to Iraq’s prime minister, a New York Times columnist and Tom DeLay, whom it redundantly called “Hammer Agonistes.” First place, individual, goes to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who got slapped with the sobriquet by three publications. We’ll concede it’s been a bad year, but he hasn’t yet gone blind or pulled down the temple.

On the other hand, Arnie, that could make a hot movie if the politics thing doesn’t work out. — BRENDAN BUHLER