Etymology Dictionary

AGOG,  in eagerness; hence, eager.  (Scand.)   Well known as occurring in Cowper's John Gilpin; 'all agog,' i.e. all eager.   Gog signifies eagerness, desire; and is so used by Beaumont and Fletcher:  'you have put me into such a gog of going, I would not stay for all the world;' Wit Without Money, iii. I; see Todd's Johnson.   To 'set agog' is to put in eagerness, to make one eager or anxious to do a thing.   Cf. F. vivre à gogo, to live in clover, lit. according to one's desire; en avoir à gogo, to have in full abundance, to have all one can wish.   Both F. and E. terms are of Scand. origin.   Cf. Icel. gægjask, to be all agog, to bend eagerly forward and peep; also gægjur, fem. pl., only used in the phrase standa á gægjum, to stand agog, or on tiptoe (of expectation); Cleasby and Vigfusson's Icel. Dict. [※]

ERRATA

This article is entirely wrong; I was misled by Vigfusson's translation of Icel. gægjask as 'to be all agog.'   We may first note an excellent example of on gog in Gascoigne's Poems, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 288, viz.   'Or, at the least, yt setts the harte on gogg,' i.e. astir; The Griefe of Joye, thyrde Songe, st. 21.   As an additional example, take the following:  'Being set agog to thinke all the world otemele;' Udall, tr. of Erasmus' Apophthegms, Phocion, § 11.   It greatly resembles W. gog, activity; cf. W. gogi, to agitate.   Perhaps a-gog = on gog, in agitation, in a state of activity.   But gog does not seem to be a genuine Celtic word; so that this solution also fails.   We must, in any case, set aside Icel. gægjask and gægjur, G. gucken, and probably also the F. à gogo.