Question from Julie Lagoc, November 28, 2009:
Don’t you think that in one of your topics below, “floundering” is the more appropriate word rather than “foundering” to describe the superpower's economy. Or was your choice of word just a typo?
• News and Commentary: China Now Leads in Foreign Student Enrolment in the US (A much-welcome boost to the superpower’s foundering economy)
My reply to Julie:
You are suggesting that “floundering” is more appropriate than “foundering” to describe the US economy, but I think the latter better describes the idea I had in mind. Here’s how my Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary defines it:
founder
Function: verb
Inflected Form: foundered ; foundering
intransitive verb
1 : to become disabled; especially : to go lame
2 : to give way : COLLAPSE
3 : to become submerged : SINK
4 : to come to grief : FAIL
transitive verb : to disable (an animal) especially
In contrast, “flounder” has these definitions:
flounder
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Form: floundered ; floundering
1 : to struggle to move or obtain footing : thrash about wildly
2 : to proceed or act clumsily or ineffectually
I think that although the US economy had sunk technically, it didn’t “thrash about wildly” after President Barack Obama’s efforts to buoy it up—so it just “foundered” or got submerged and had not “floundered” or become ineffectual for some time.
At any rate, the two words share common attributes and could possibly be interchangeable at times. I suppose the choice between these two words would just be a matter of point of view.
