SELIM 18.indb Andrew Breeze, SELIM 18 (2011): 169–171ISSN: 1132–631X A CELTIC ETYMOLOGY FOR STRUGGLE “CONTEND, FIGHT” Although a common word, STRUGGLE “to contend (with an adversary) in a close grapple” and so on has been of obscure etymology. OED fi rst records the verb @ om Chaucer (the noun “a resolute contest” not being attested until John Locke in 1692). So the Merchant tells of a faithless wife, assuring an old husband that he regained sight by her shameless action (see Mann 2005: 379, 468): “‘Was nothing bet to make yow to se, / Than strugle with a man upon a tree. / God woot, I dide it in ful good entente.’” His response is brusque: “‘Strugle!’ quod he, ‘ye, algate in it wente! / God yeve yow bothe on shames deth to dien!’” More grimly, the Pardoner repeats words of conspiracy to murder through a wrestling-bout: “‘And I shal rive him thurgh the sides tweye / Whil that thow strogelest with him as in game, / And with thy daggere looke thow do the same.’” On derivation, suggestions by Skeat and others of links with Norse strúgr “ill will, contention” or Dutch struikelen and German straucheln “stumble” have not been convincing (SOED, s.v.). The origin has been unknown. Struggle may thus not be Germanic, but Celtic. Middle Irish has a verb sraíglid “whips, fl ogs, scourges, lashes; affl icts, punishes, slaughters; pulls, tears,” giving later sraíllid (Vendryes 1974: S.186– 187). It is @ om the noun represented in Old Irish as srogell or sroigell (therea ̀er sroigheall) “whip, lash,” itself @ om Latin fl agellum (by way of Vulgar Latin), as is older Welsh ff rowyll “a whip, a scourge” (Rowland 1990: 525). The Irish forms are well attested, though the meaning “fl agellate” has become literary, and the verb’s main sense is now “rip, tear apart,” as in Bhí siad á sraoilleadh ag na madraí “they were being torn to bits by the dogs” (O Dónaill 1977: 1153). Middle Irish also off ers the verb-noun sroigled “an act of scourging, fl ogging; act of striking, beating, attacking; act of tearing, pulling” 170 Andrew Breeze SELIM 18 (2011) (DIL, s.v.). Middle English strogle “contend in a close grapple” may hence derive % om Irish or Gaelic srogell “a whip.” Formally it seems that this noun (not the verb) was borrowed by English, and was then used in senses resembling those of the Irish verb. In either case it would have the intrusive t standard for Irish loans in sr-, familiar % om Strabane (An Srath Bán “the white river-holm”) in Northern Ireland (McKay 2007: 136). Granted that we have a Celtic loan, how might Chaucer know the word, which evidently caught his fancy? Attestations in OED imply that it came via Scots. It quotes an account by John Shirley (d. 1456) of James I’s murder in 1437 at Black% iars, Perth. He wrote, “And gretely the Kyng strogild with hem [his assassins],” so that his hands bled as he grabbed their knives. Shirley may have had the verb % om a Scottish source, or picked it up % om Chaucer. OED also quotes The Earle of Gowries Conspiracie Against the Kings Maiestie of Scotland (London, 1600) on James VI, who “wyth struggeling and wrastling” got the advantage over an attacker. If struggle were borrowed % om Gaelic, it would hence be in Scotland, not Ireland. The loan need not be early, as the voiced guttural spirant of sroigheall survived longer in Scottish Gaelic than it did in Irish (O’Rahilly 1972: 141). The spirant having no equivalent in English, -gg- would be due to sound-substitution. Middle English strugle or strogle thus apparently goes back to Old Irish srogell “whip, lash” (a borrowing of Latin fl agellum), which gives a Gaelic verb meaning “to whip; strike, beat, attack; affl ict, punish; pull, tear.” It will be an interesting addition to the stock of Celtic loanwords in English, a subject now gaining attention % om scholars in Poland and Finland (Stalmaszczyk 2005; Filppula, Klemola & Paulasto 2008). Andrew Breeze University of Navarre, Pamplona 171 A Celtic etymology for struggle ‘contend, fi ght’ SELIM 18 (2011) References DIL = Dictionary of the Irish Language. Dublin, Royal Irish Academy. Filppula, M., J. Klemola & H. Paulasto 2008: English and Celtic in Contact London, Routledge. Mann, J. ed. 2005: The Canterbury Tales. London, Penguin. McKay, P. 2007: A Dictionary of Ulster Place-Names. 2nd ed. Belfast, Cló Ollscoil na Banríona. Ó Dónaill, N. 1977: Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla. Baile Átha Cliath, Oifi g An tSoláthair. O’Rahilly, T. F. 1972: Irish Dialects Past and Present. 2nd ed. Dublin, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Rowland, J. 1990: Early Welsh Saga Poetry: A Study and Edition of the Englynion. Cambridge, D. S. Brewer. SOED = The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. 3rd ed. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Stalmaszczyk, P. 2005: Celtic Presence. Studies in Celtic Languages and Literatures: Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Cornish. Łódź, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łóȳ kiego. 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