different between struggle vs elbowgrease

English

Alternative forms

• stroggell, strogell (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English struglen, stroglen, strogelen, of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots strugil (“to struggle, grapple, contend”). Perhaps from a variant of *strokelen, *stroukelen (> English stroll), from Middle Dutch struyckelen ("to stumble, trip, falter"; > Modern Dutch struikelen), the frequentative form of Old Dutch *str?kon (“to stumble”), from Proto-Germanic *str?k?n?, *str?k?n? (“to be stiff”), from Proto-Indo-European *strug-, *ster- (“to be stiff; to bristle, strut, stumble, fall”), related to Middle Low German strûkelen ("to stumble"; > Low German strükeln), Old High German str?hh?n, str?hh?n ("to stumble, trip, tumble, go astray"; > German strauchen, straucheln).

Alternative etymology derives the base of struggle from Old Norse strúgr (“arrogance, pride, spitefulness, ill-will”) + -le (frequentative suffix), from Proto-Germanic *str?kaz (“stiff, rigid”), ultimately from the same Proto-Indo-European root above, which would make it cognate with dialectal Swedish strug (“contention, strife, discord”), Norwegian stru (“obstinate, unruly”), Danish struende (“reluctantly”), Scots strug (“difficulty, perplexity, a laborious task”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?str???l/, [?st???l?]
• Hyphenation: strug?gle
• Rhymes: -???l

Noun

struggle (plural struggles)

1. A contortion of the body in an attempt to escape or to perform a difficult task.
2. (figuratively) Strife, contention, great effort.

Derived terms

• class struggle
• power struggle

Translations

Verb

struggle (third-person singular simple present struggles, present participle struggling, simple past and past participle struggled)

1. To strive, to labour in difficulty, to fight (for or against), to contend.
2. To strive, or to make efforts, with a twisting, or with contortions of the body.

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Translations

Anagrams

• gurglets