{"id":7240,"date":"2006-11-25T11:59:21","date_gmt":"2006-11-25T15:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/what-is-agita\/"},"modified":"2010-12-14T08:45:55","modified_gmt":"2010-12-14T13:45:55","slug":"what-is-agita","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/what-is-agita\/","title":{"rendered":"what is “agita”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The anonymous Editor of <\/span>Blawg Review<\/span><\/em><\/a>, wrote to me overnight, <\/span>concerned that I might not know the origin of one of my favorite words, <\/span>agita<\/a><\/em>. “Ed”<\/em> sent me this link<\/a> to a medical website which explains:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Agita<\/strong>: Heartburn, acid indigestion, an upset stomach or, by <\/span>extension, a general feeling of upset. The word is Italian-American <\/span>slang derived from the Italian \u201cagitare\u201d meaning \u201cto agitate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That launched me on a lengthy tangent, in which I discovered a fuller <\/span>and fun discussion of agita<\/em> at The Word Detective<\/a>, which includes:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

You won\u2019t find \u201cagita\u201d in most dictionaries, although it is a <\/span>quintessential Italian-American slang word. Strictly speaking, <\/span>\u201cagita\u201d is a stomach upset or heartburn. But \u201cagita\u201d can also <\/span>mean that special kind of existential dyspepsia of the soul you <\/span>get when absolutely everything goes wrong. Comedian Jackie <\/span>Mason has explained \u201cagita\u201d as \u201cwhen you have been aggravated <\/span>to the point where it feels like you have a serious migraine headache <\/span>throughout your whole body.\u201d \u201cAgita\u201d is thus more or less the Italian-<\/span>American equivalent of the Yiddish \u201ctsuris\u201d (\u201dmisery\u201d), an equation not lost on Woody Allen, who made a song about \u201cagita\u201d the center-<\/span>piece of his 1984 film \u201cBroadway Danny Rose.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"alkas\" From The Word Detective, I careened around the Web, until I found<\/a> lyrics to <\/span>one of <\/span>the many ditties within Broadway Danny Rose<\/em><\/a> about agita. I believe <\/span><\/span>they will help elucidate the concept:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAgita<\/strong>\u201c<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(by <\/span>Nick Apollo Forte<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Una two!
\nAgita<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

My gumba in the banzone
\nWhen I eat, he gets a treat
\nLike a canzone
\nHe enjoys every meal
\nEvery bite that I steal
\nAgita<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

My gumba in the banzone
\nZa da da da da|boom cha boom cha
\nZa da da dum|cha boom cha boom
\nSome people like their pizza,|some people like-a suffrite
\nAnd others like hot pepper|on everything they eat
\nYou\u2019ll hunger with a vuole|to taste that baccala
\nThen all at once you think,|\u201dWill I answer to gumba?\u201d
\nBa ba ba ba bum|cha cha dum
\nBa ba ba ba bum|cha cha dum<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

My lovely, lovely woman,|I hate to see her cry
\nBut when I start to mangia,|I get the evil eye
\nMy vuole\u2019s getting stronger
\nAh, the hell with my gumba
\nThen I get it from my woman,|che da botts a na sciatta
\nAgita<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

My gumba in the banzone
\nWhen I eat, he gets a treat
\nLike a canzone
\nHe enjoys every meal
\nEvery bite that I steal
\nAgita<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

My gumba in the banzone
\nZa da da dum|cha boom cha boom<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Capeesh<\/em><\/a>?<\/em> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[this page is excerpted from our posting agita & attention deficit disorder<\/a>, Oct. 28, 2005]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The anonymous Editor of Blawg Review, wrote to me overnight, concerned that I might not know the origin of one of my favorite words, agita. “Ed” sent me this link to a medical website which explains: Agita: Heartburn, acid indigestion, an upset stomach or, by extension, a general feeling of upset. The word is Italian-American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7240","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P6kP1R-1SM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7240"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11641,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7240\/revisions\/11641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}