struggle

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 *strūkon (“to stumble”), from Proto-Germanic *strūkōnan, *strūkēnan (“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 strūhhēn, strūhhōn ("to stumble, trip, tumble, go astray"; > Modern German strauchen, straucheln).

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

Pronunciation

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Noun

struggle (plural struggles)

1. strife, contention, great effort

Translations

strife, effort

• Afrikaans: stryd
• Arabic: كفاح (kifaaH), نضال (ar) (niDaal) m
• Catalan: lluita (ca) f
• Chinese: trad. 掙扎, simpl. 挣扎 (pinyin: zhēngzhá), trad. 奮鬥, simpl. 奋斗 (pinyin: fèndòu), trad. 鬥爭, simpl. 斗争 (pinyin: dòuzhēng)
• Czech: zápas (cs) m
• Danish: kamp (en)
• Dutch: gevecht (nl), strijd (nl)
• Finnish: taistelu (fi)
• French: lutte (fr) f
• German: Kampf (de) m
• Greek: αγώνας (el) m (agónas)
• Hungarian: küzdelem (hu)

• Italian: lotta (it) f
• Japanese: 奮闘 (ja) (ふんとう, funtō), 闘争 (ja) (とうそう, tōsō)
• Korean: 투쟁 (tujaeng)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: خه‌بات (ku) (xebat)

• Norwegian: kjempe (no), streve (no)
• Portuguese: luta (pt) f
• Russian: борьба (ru) (bor’bá) f 
• Scottish Gaelic: iomairt (gd) f
• Spanish: lucha (es) f
• Swedish: kamp (sv)
• Telugu: పోరాటం (pOraaTaM)

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.

   During the centuries, the people of Ireland struggled constantly to assert their right to govern themselves.

   • 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, BBC Sport:

     England were ponderous with ball in hand, their runners static when taking the ball and their lines obvious, while their front row struggled badly in the scrum.

Usage notes

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

Translations

to strive, to labour in difficulty, to fight

• Arabic: يكافح
• Chinese: trad. 奮鬥, simpl. 奋斗 (pinyin: fèndòu)
• Czech: zápasit (cs)
• Danish: kæmpe (da)
• Dutch: vechten, worstelen, moeite hebben met (same meaning as worstelen)
• Finnish: ponnistella, kamppailla
• French: lutter (fr), s'efforcer (fr)
• German: sich durchbeißen (de), sich schwer tun (de)
• Hungarian: küzd (hu), harcol (hu), viaskodik (hu)
• Italian: lottare (it)

• Japanese: 闘争する (ja) (tōsōsuru), 奮闘する (ja) (funtōsuru)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: تێکۆشان (ku) (taekoshAn), خه‌بات (ku) (khabAt)

• Norwegian: slåss (no), kjempe (no), slite (no) streve (no)
• Old English: winnan (ang)
• Portuguese: lutar (pt), debater-se (pt)
• Romanian: lupta (ro), zbate (ro)
• Russian: бороться (ru) (borót’sja) 
• Spanish: luchar (es), esforzarse con denuedo (es)
• Turkish: mücadele etmek (tr)