This etymology, which is found here only, was designed in order to account for a contextual use of ἀγανός as an epithet, not of "words" as usual, but of "arrows" (ἀγανοῖσι βέλεσσι), viz. Artemis' arrows. In this context, some scholars maintained the general meaning of ἀγανός, understanding that the phrase means "mild arrows", as a metaphor of painless death. But others thought "mil" was not appropriate as an epithet of "arrows" and understood it as "quick" or "hard" or "painful", hence different etymologies. The etymology by ἄγαν νύσσειν presumably relies on an interpretation "strong, hard". As the usual etymology (see ἀγανός / ἄγαν + αἰνέω), it identifies in the initial [aga] the adverb ἄγαν, and then a verb compatible with what an arrow does is provided as a second element (νύσσω "to stab, to pierce"), only the initial consonant being kept