Is there a relation between struggle and straggle ?
Is it like "crush and âcrashâ? I donât think the two words, that is, struggle and straggle, are related to each other, although they could be related etymologically or even subconsciously in my own mind.
Edited.
I added âthat is âŚâ because some might think that âtheyâ was intended to refer to âcrush and crashâ.
not sure about the etymology but they certainly share connotation⌠there are plenty counter examples to this though for eg. pizzle and puzzle, link and lank, pink and punk
I wonder what âtheyâ in your comment refers to. Are you referring to âcrush and crashâ? I intended to refer to âstruggle and straggle.â
Whereas âfeminineâ is by no means related to âfamineâ in my mind, âmachoâ is related to another adjective that begins with the letter âmâ, that is, âmuscular,â at least âsubconsciously.â But I donât know if they are related etymologically.
You may straggle into class in the morning because getting out of bed is a struggle for you. âStraggleâ is thought to come from âstrackleâ (stretch), whereas âstruggleâ is of obscure origin (perhaps from ME strugle, strogel - according to my quite old Concise Oxford Dictionary)
If you had not slept well, you would have âstaggeredâ into the class.
Struggle means to do something with great difficulty; straggle - a small child often straggles behind its mother who is walking ahead.
Another example, some people really STRUGGLE with doing maths or learning languages. These people often feel they STRAGGLE behind their peers who they feel are way ahead of them.
You might find these dictionary links helpful:
I donât know if there is linguistic link between the two - but there certainly is in real life - those who struggle in life often straggle (lag) behind. But, on a positive note, many people who initially struggle with something ultimately become very good, Einstein being possibly one of the best examples. He was not very good at maths at school but, as we know, he eventually became so proficient that he hit upon E=mc² and revolutionised our understanding of energy and the universe.
Conversely I suppose one may say:
Those who stop struggling eventually stop straggling
They arenât related.
âTheyâ could refer to both word pairs, but I intended to refer to the original post. I am not sure why my post was under yours. I may have put it there by mistake.
Thank you for your reply.
I was, and am still, a little confused because you wrote that âtheyâ shared connotation.
Thank you so much for your explanation
They (either struggle and straggle or crush and crash) share connotation-- they are not synonyms but they correlate in the imagination. For example, they are probably quite often found in close proximity in a narrative because they share a tone, they are a common cause-effect relation etc.
I think the same is even more true for Japanese vocabulary⌠words that are identical or close in pronunciation are often very close in connotation.
I feel that the word ârelationâ can be used in different contexts. For example, if you are sleepy because you are tired, being sleepy and being tired are causally related; that is, these two phenomena have a causal relationship. But the two adjectives have different meanings and have no relation etymologically. Being cool and being cold are very similar and could be described together by using some temperature-related scale, but they are evidently different words. Do âcoolâ and âcoldâ have a ârelationâ? You could say they are related in the way they occupy similar places in your vocabulary or in the system of meanings in your mind.