flounder
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 15, 2021 is: flounder \FLOUN-der\ verb 1 : to struggle to move or obtain footing : thrash about wildly 2 : to proceed or act clumsily or ineffectually Examples: "Tech geeks will read the book with knowing amusement; those of us floundering in the rarefied air will encounter baffling jargon and acronyms scattered like birdseed through the pages." — [Lee Langley, The Spectator, 29 May 2021](https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/brave-new-virtual-world-the-startup-wife-by-tahmima-anam-reviewed) "Several times, just when we think we know how 'Unsettled Ground' will unfold, Fuller pulls the rug out from under us, leaving us, too, floundering to find our footing." — [Marcia Kaye, The Toronto Star, 22 May 2021](https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/reviews/2021/05/22/in-her-new-book-unsettled-ground-claire-fuller-explores-how-the-simple-life-comes-with-its-own-complications.html) Did you know? Flounder is a relatively common verb that current evidence dates to the late 16th century, when it was likely born by means of an alteration of an older verb, [founder](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/founder#h2). The two have been confused ever since. Today, founder is most often used as a synonym of [fail](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fail), or, in the case of a waterborne vessel, as a word meaning "to fill with water and sink." Formerly, it was also frequently applied when a horse stumbled badly and was unable to keep walking. It's likely this sense of founder led to the original and now-obsolete meaning of flounder: "to stumble." In modern use, flounder typically means "to struggle" or "to act clumsily"; the word lacks the finality of founder, which usually denotes complete collapse or failure, as that of a sunken ship.