different between founder vs stagger

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?fa?nd?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?fa?nd?/
• Rhymes: -a?nd?(?)
• Hyphenation: found?er

Etymology 1

From Old French fondeur, from Latin fund?tor.

Noun

founder (plural founders, feminine foundress)

1. One who founds or establishes (especially said of a company, project, organisation, state)

2. (genetics) Someone for whose parents one has no data.

Antonyms

• (one who founds): ruiner

Derived terms

• cofounder

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle French fondeur, from Latin fundo (“pour, melt, cast”)

Noun

founder (plural founders)

1. The iron worker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.
   • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 161.

     The term 'founder' was applied in the British iron industry long afterwards to the ironworker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.

2. One who casts metals in various forms; a caster.

   a founder of cannon, bells, hardware, or printing types

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle French fondrer (“send to the bottom”), from Latin fundus (“bottom”)

Noun

founder (plural founders)

1. (veterinary medicine) A severe laminitis of a horse, caused by untreated internal inflammation in the hooves.

Translations

Verb

founder (third-person singular simple present founders, present participle foundering, simple past and past participle foundered)

1. (intransitive) Of a ship, to fill with water and sink.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship but we saw her sink, and then I understood for the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea.
2. (intransitive) To fall; to stumble and go lame, as a horse.
3. (intransitive) To fail; to miscarry.
4. (transitive, archaic, nautical) To cause to fill and sink, as a ship.
   • 1697, William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World, Volume I, page 82

     We found a strong Tide setting out of the Streights to the Northward, and like to founder our Ship.

   • 1744, William Smith, A New Voyage to Guinea, page 167, quoted in The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds Of The Slave Trade, Robert Harms, 2008

     "I was amazed when we came among the breakers (which to me seemed large enough to founder our ship), to see with what wondrous dexterity they carried us through them, and ran their canoes on the top of one of those rolling waves […] "

   • 1932, Hart Crane, "From haunts of Proserpine" (Review of Green River: A Poem for Rafinesque, James Whaler

     But still more disastrous was the storm which foundered his ship in Long Island Sound, swallowing within call of shore his fifty boxes of scientific equipment, his books, manuscripts and funds, the results of years of devoted labor.

5. (transitive) To disable or lame (a horse) by causing internal inflammation and soreness in the feet or limbs.

Translations

Usage notes

Frequently confused with flounder. Both may be applied to the same situation, the difference is the severity of the action: floundering (struggling to maintain position) comes first, followed by foundering (losing it by falling, sinking or failing).

Anagrams

• Neudorf, fonduer, refound

Old French

Etymology

From Latin fund?.

Verb

founder

1. (late Anglo-Norman) Alternative spelling of funder

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-d, *-ds, *-dt are modified to t, z, t. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

English

Etymology

From Middle English stageren, stakeren, from Old Norse stakra (“to push, stagger”). Cognate with dialectal Danish stagre.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?stæ??/?
• (US) IPA^(key): /?stæ??/
• Rhymes: -æ??(r)

Noun

stagger (plural staggers)

1. An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion
   • 7 October 2012, Paolo Bandini in The Guardian, Denver Broncos 21 New England Patriots 31 - as it happened

     Put down the rosary beads folks, I believe hell may just have frozen over. Peyton Manning drops back, sees nothing open and runs for a first down. If you can call that running. More like the stagger of a wounded rhino. Did the job, though

   • 1861, Ellen Wood, East Lynne Chapter 39

     Afy slowly gathered in the sense of the words. She gasped twice, as if her breath had gone, and then, with a stagger and a shiver, fell heavily to the ground.

   • 1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol Stave 2

     And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all through the dance; advance and retire; both hands to your partner, bow and courtesy, corkscrew, thread the needle, and back again to your place; Fezziwig "cut"—cut so deftly that he appeared to wink with his legs, and came upon his feet again without a stagger.

2. (veterinary medicine) A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling

3. Bewilderment; perplexity.
4. The spacing out of various actions over time.
   • 19 April 2016, Rachel Roddy in The Guardian, Rachel Roddy’s Roman spring vegetable stew recipe

     I don’t include cured pork, although it is very nice, and rather than putting everything in the pan at once I prefer a stagger of ingredients, which ensures each one gets the right amount of time.

5. (motor racing) The difference in circumference between the left and right tires on a racing vehicle. It is used on oval tracks to make the car turn better in the corners.
6. (aviation) The horizontal positioning of a biplane, triplane, or multiplane's wings in relation to one another.

Translations

Verb

stagger (third-person singular simple present staggers, present participle staggering, simple past and past participle staggered)

1. Sway unsteadily, reel, or totter.
   1. (intransitive) In standing or walking, to sway from one side to the other as if about to fall; to stand or walk unsteadily; to reel or totter.

      She began to stagger across the room.

      • Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow.

   2. (transitive) To cause to reel or totter.

      The powerful blow of his opponent's fist staggered the boxer.
   3. (intransitive) To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail.
      • 1708, Joseph Addison, The Present State of the War, and the Necessity of an Augmentation

        The enemy staggers.

2. Doubt, waver, be shocked.
   1. (intransitive) To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate.

      • He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.

   2. (transitive) To cause to doubt and waver; to make to hesitate; to make less steady or confident; to shock.

      He will stagger the committee when he presents his report.

      • 1640, James Howell, England's Teares for the present Warres

        whosoever will be curious to read the future story of this intricate war , if it be possible to compile a story of it , he will find himself much staggered.

      • 1796, Edmund Burke, a letter to a noble lord

        Grants to the house of Russell were so enormous, as not only to outrage economy, but even to stagger credibility.

3. (transitive) Have multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly-spaced, times or places (attested from 1856).
   1. To arrange (a series of parts) on each side of a median line alternately, as the spokes of a wheel or the rivets of a boiler seam.
   2. To arrange similar objects such that each is ahead or above and to one side of the next.

      We will stagger the starting positions for the race on the oval track.

   3. To schedule in intervals.

      We will stagger the run so the faster runners can go first, then the joggers.

Translations

See also

• bestagger
• staggeringly
• staggers

References

Anagrams

• gagster, gargets, taggers