Why this word is great
AGONISTES — [Noun] A person defined by a struggle or contest, often of a spiritual, moral, or intellectual nature. Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀγωνιστής (agōnistḗs, "a contestant in the public games"), from ἀγών (agṓn, "contest, struggle"). Unlike "protagonist" (which centers a narrative lead) or "combatant" (which denotes a physical fighter), an agonistes is constituted by the struggle itself, for whom conflict is the constitutive condition. It is the solitary wrestler with an angel in the desert twilight, the scholar besieged by texts in a pool of lamplight, the conscience grappling with a silent and impossible choice—an identity forged not in victory, but in the austere dignity of the enduring contest.