struggle

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈstrʌɡ.əl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English struglen, strogelen,^[2][3][4] a word of obscure origin,^[3][5] probably a frequentative with the suffix -le, as in trample and wrestle, but the first element is uncertain.^[3][2][6] Skeat suggested Old Norse strúgr “ill will”,^[3][6] and others Dutch struikelen and German straucheln “to stumble”,^[3][2] though Barnhart thinks the meaning makes this unlikely.^[2] The Middle English Compendium compares stroublen “to disturb”, a clipping of distroublen, like stroy for destroy.^[3] Hoad and the Concise Oxford think it probably symbolic or imitative.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

“To wrestle, grapple, contend physically”: about 1386 in the OED,^[8] about 1395 in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales according to Barnhart,^[2] the late 14th century in Etymonline.^[3]

Semantic evolution

“To argue, debate” is attested by the early 15th century,^[3] and the figurative “to contend resolutely, as with a stronger adversary” from about 1412.^[8] The sense widened gradually to “to put forth effort, strive strenuously”,^[3] 1597 in the OED.^[8] The noun is from 1692, in John Locke's writings,^[2][8] the 1690s in Etymonline,^[3] though Merriam-Webster has 1560.^[9] The struggle for existence, a metaphor in biology, is from before 1827.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – to grapple.^[8]
• early 15th century – to argue.^[3]
• 1597 – to strive against difficulties.^[8]
• 1692 – noun.^[2][8]
• a. 1827 – struggle for existence.^[8]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To exert one's strength, as against a physical force: struggled to free himself.
2. To make a great effort; to strive.
3. To contend or compete.
4. To progress with difficulty: struggled up the hill.

Noun

1. The act of struggling; a strenuous effort.
2. A fight, contest or conflict.

Word family

• struggler
• strugglingly
• unstruggling
• class struggle

Related words

• wrestle
• trample

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster