| 词组 | wangle, wrangle |
| 释义 | wangle, wrangle Wangle and wrangle are easily distinguished in most of their uses. Wangle has the basic sense, "to accomplish something in a scheming or indirect way," while wrangle basically means "to argue or engage in controversy." Thus, one wangles out of difficulties, for example, and the opposing sides in a labor dispute wrangle over a new contract. The distinction in most cases is clear, but not when the two verbs occur in such contexts as the following: • ... he had to wangle independent financing —Hollis Alpert, Saturday Rev., 16 Nov. 1974 • The big "execs" were worried about how to wrangle more money and prestige from the new democratic order —Bill AuCoin, Redneck, 1977 • ... delivering luxury yachts to distant ports and wangling ... cushy deals —Ray Kennedy, Sports Illustrated, 14 May 1984 • Rebuked by Mayor Koch in his attempt to wrangle a multimillion tax abatement and zoning exemptions —Newsweek, 29 June 1987 This may look like a simple case of one verb being confused for the other, but the matter is not quite as straightforward as that. Both wangle and wrangle appear to have developed the sense "to obtain" independently. The OED shows that wrangle was used to mean "to obtain by wrangling" (that is, by arguing or bargaining) as far back as 1624: • We wrangled out of the King ten quarters of Come for a copper Kettell —Captain John Smith, The Generali Historie of Virginia, 1624 (OED) Wangle, a newer verb of American origin, has been used in the sense "to obtain by wangling" (that is, by slyly using one's influence or powers of persuasion) since at least the early 20th century: • ... and when in home waters had 'wangled' a few days' leave —Bulletin, 28 Dec. 1917 (OED) The "obtain" sense of wrangle was labeled "obsolete or rare" by the OED in 1928, but recent decades have seen its revival. Chances are that its renewed use is due in part to the success of wangle in its own "obtain" sense— and may in fact be mainly the result of confusion about which word is which. Nevertheless, the "obtain" sense of wrangle is established in reputable use, and is treated as standard by current dictionaries. The "obtain" sense of wangle is also standard, of course, and is appreciably more common than that of wrangle. |
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