Mackenzie from Green Bay, Wisconsin, learned the word agita from a friend in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She uses it to refer to “that heavy, sluggish feeling one gets after eating too much,” the feeling some call the meat sweats. The word agita comes from Southern Italian dialects, where it originally meant “acidity” or “heartburn,” and traveled into broader American English through Italian-American communities in New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, and Long Island. It appeared in English print in New York State in the late 1970s, got a boost from the 1984 film Broadway Danny Rose, and was further popularized by the TV series The Sopranos. Today agita can mean physical indigestion, extreme food fatigue, or just plain aggravation, as in You’re giving me the agita. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “You Give Me Agita, Capisce?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Mackenzie from Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Hey Mackenzie, we’re glad to have you. What’s on your mind?
So I’m calling today with a word that I learned about 10 years ago from my friend in Pennsylvania.
The word is called ajna. So it’s like having the ajna would mean like if you’ve eaten too much,
You’re sluggish, your digestion is full, you’ve got the ajna. It’s kind of akin to the meat sweats.
And I just kind of wondered if it was a family term from him or if it is a common term.
Oh, yes. Probably yes to both of those, but definitely common for parts of Pennsylvania.
Let me guess, from Southeast Pennsylvania near New Jersey.
He was from Bethlehem, I think.
So Bethlehem being on the eastern part of the state makes a lot of sense because that’s where a lot of Italian Americans live and it comes from Italian.
Oh.
So usually the way you said it was Agna, Ajna?
The Ajna.
The Ajna.
I love it with the article in there.
Usually these days it is spelled A-G-I-T-A, but you might see it as Arjna, A-R-G-A-D-A or Ajna, A-G-I-D-A.
And the reason there’s some variation in pronunciation and spelling is that for a long time it was only transmitted orally.
It comes to mainstream English through Italian-Americans and from dialects of Italian, where there’s this word that means acidity or heartburn.
It’s pronounced something like achirida, achirida.
And that became corrupted in the mouths of people who were maybe second or third generation Italian-Americans and not, you know, fresh from Italy or fresh from the parts of Italy where they use this word.
So usually southern Italian dialects in any case.
So, yeah, the word originally meant physical heartburn or acid indigestion.
But as you said, it could be meat sweats or even just the extreme tiredness that you get from overeating or eating too richly.
But over time, the word has modified to mean aggravation or anxiety or fretfulness.
And you particularly will see it in expressions like, you’re giving me the agita.
Stop doing that.
Meaning you’re making me anxious.
You’re giving me aggravation or you’re giving me heartburn, whatever you’re doing or whatever you’re saying.
It shows up in print in the late 1970s in New York State.
So lots of Italian-Americans throughout the New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Long Island kind of region.
Tons of Italian-Americans.
A huge, huge population of Italian-Americans even now.
And so this word starts to show up where people are talking about it.
It’s almost always indicated as, oh, yeah, as the Italians say or as the Italian-Americans say or as they say in New Jersey, that sort of thing.
And then it shows up in the 1984 movie Broadway, Danny Rose, which was a big hit.
And Nick Apollo Forte plays a character called Lucanova.
And he sings a song about the ajita.
He actually sings to his ajita in the song.
And it’s got hilarious lyrics like, ajita my compa in the panzone, meaning ajita my pal in the belly.
And he’s talking about this ajita.
Whenever the singer gets to eat a treat, it’s like a canzone, a song.
And the ajita enjoys every meal, every bite that I steal.
Ajita my kumpa in the panzone.
So it’s just, it’s a really fun song.
He does a great job singing it.
And that kind of really made it take off from there.
And then of course it shows up in the Sopranos
And that kind of further entrenched
In broader English outside of Italian Americans
And that part of the East Coast.
Well, that is so interesting.
And I’ve been using the term all over the country
Ever since then.
Are people getting it?
Do they understand it when you say it?
No, they don’t, never.
I always have to explain.
But then the term is being passed on.
Boy, I can sure picture Tony Soprano saying it.
Yeah, definitely.
Right?
James Gandolfini, that’s absolutely coming out of his mouth.
I mean, I don’t know for sure, but if it didn’t, it should have.
There’s definitely some acid there, acid indigestion.
I mean, if you’ve got to go to a therapist, you’ve got tons of oxygen.
Mackenzie, thank you so much for this question.
I learned a lot.
Thank you so much for having me.
Yeah, it’s our pleasure.
You call us again sometime, all right?
All right.
Sounds good.
Thank you.
You won’t give us the agita if you make that phone go nuts.
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