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tenterhooks [tenterhooks 词源字典]: tenterhooks: [15] A tenterhook is one of a set of hooks used to hold cloth taut on a frame during manufacture, especially while its dries (tenter comes from medieval Latin tentorium, a derivative of Latin tendere ‘stretch’). The metaphorical use of on tenterhooks to mean ‘in a state of agonizing suspense’ dates from the mid- 18th century.
[tenterhooks etymology, tenterhooks origin, 英语词源]
agonize (v.): 1580s, "to torture," from Middle French agoniser or directly from Medieval Latin agonizare, from Greek agonizesthai "contend in the struggle" (see agony). Intransitive sense of "suffer physical pain" is recorded from 1660s; that of "to worry intensely" is from 1853. Related: Agonized; agonizing.
antagonize (v.): 1630s, "to compete with," from Greek antagonizesthai "to struggle against, oppose, be a rival" (see antagonist). Meaning "to struggle against continuously" is recorded from 1742. Related: Antagonized; antagonizing.
agonious: "(A) Full of agony, agonizing. (b) Involving struggle; relating to the agony of death", Early 16th cent.; earliest use found in Robert Fabyan (d. 1513), chronicler. From agony + -ous, originally after Middle French agonieux agonizing.