Etymologically
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struggle

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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
  • 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