Is there a relation between struggle and straggle?

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1

Is there a relation between struggle and straggle ?

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Is it like "crush and “crash”? I don’t 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 “that is …” because some might think that “they” was intended to refer to “crush and crash”.

3

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

4

I wonder what “they” in your comment refers to. Are you referring to “crush and crash”? I intended to refer to “struggle and straggle.”

5

Whereas “feminine” is by no means related to “famine” in my mind, “macho” is related to another adjective that begins with the letter “m”, that is, “muscular,” at least “subconsciously.” But I don’t know if they are related etymologically.

6

You may straggle into class in the morning because getting out of bed is a struggle for you. ‘Straggle’ is thought to come from ‘strackle’ (stretch), whereas ‘struggle’ is of obscure origin (perhaps from ME strugle, strogel - according to my quite old Concise Oxford Dictionary)

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7

If you had not slept well, you would have “staggered” into the class.

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8

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 don’t 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 :slight_smile:

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They aren’t related.

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“They” 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.

11

Thank you for your reply.
I was, and am still, a little confused because you wrote that “they” shared connotation.

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Thank you so much for your explanation

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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.

14

I feel that the word “relation” 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 “cool” and “cold” have a “relation”? 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.