flounder

• vi. もがく、翻弄する；間違ったことをする、言う
• n. もがく、翻弄する；じたばたする

子音クラスターflから、ひらひら、ばたばた、オノマトペ、語源的にはflap、flag、flutterと同じ。 派生語源 struggle、flounder。

PIE*plat, flatの鼻音拡大形から、語源的にはflat, platypusと同じ。 ヒラメを指すのに使われる。

flounder (v.)

"struggle awkwardly and impotently," especially when hampered somehow, 1590s, of uncertain origin, perhaps an alteration of founder (q.v.), influenced by Dutch flodderen "to flop about," or native verbs in fl- expressing clumsy motion. Figurative use is from 1680s. Related: Floundered; floundering. As a noun, "act of struggling," by 1867.

flounder (n.)

"flatfish," c. 1300, from Anglo-French floundre, Old North French flondre, from Old Norse flydhra, from Proto-Germanic *flunthrjo (cognates: Middle Low German vlundere, Danish flynder, Old Swedish flundra "flatfish"), suffixed and nasalized form of PIE *plat- "to spread" (cognate: Greek platys "flat, wide, broad;" see plaice (n.)).

1. What a pity that his career was left to flounder .

なんと残念なことか、彼の事業は苦境に陥っている。

2.Mr.Dambar had loaded his plate with stuffed flounder .

但抜さんのお皿には具入りのヒラメがいっぱい入っています。

3.The plane had begun to drop and flounder wildly.

飛行機はすでに下降を始め、激しく揺れている。

4.He couldn 't swim and just flouder about in the water.

彼は泳げないが、水の中でむやみに漕いでいるだけだ。

5.She could only flounder through her song.

彼女は慌てて彼女の歌を歌うしかなかった。