Brian Cazeneuve
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Judging by its spelling and meaning, you might think that agita is simply a shortened version of agitation, but that's not the case. Both agitation and the verb it comes from, agitate, derive from Latin agere, meaning "to drive." Agita, which first appeared in American English in the mid-late 20th century, comes from a dialectical pronunciation of the Italian word acido, meaning "heartburn" or "acid," from Latin acidus. (Agita is also occasionally used in English with the meaning "heartburn.") For a while the word's usage was limited to New York City and surrounding regions, but the word became more widespread in the mid-1990s.
Examples of agita in a Sentence
Allison Morrow, CNN Money, 28 Oct. 2025
If accurate—and MiniMax’s claims have yet to be independently verified—this figure will likely cause some agita among blue-chip investors who’ve sunk hundreds of billions into private LLM makers like OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as Microsoft and Google shareholders.
—Alexandra Sternlicht, Fortune, 18 June 2025
Mark Twain seems never to have experienced such agita.
—Caity Weaver, The Atlantic, 5 June 2025
But the presence of the two is giving Democrats agita over what is becoming a proxy battle between the party establishment and progressive forces, with that battle stretching into one over Israel and Palestine.
—Al Weaver, The Hill, 1 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for agita
Cite this Entry
“Agita.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/agita. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
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