To struggle or scuffle?

[smokeyburgess]

Do you ever get annoyed by the misuse of a word that somehow catches on and becomes common usage? The latest offense is the word "scuffle," which traditionally means "to fight or struggle at close quarters." For some reason, this word has come to replace the word "struggle" in the baseball lexicon. When a baseball player is experiencing some kind of difficulty, for example, it is no longer common to say he's "struggling," but "scuffling" instead.

My question is: Why use a word that most commonly has been used to denote an actual physical fight with someone else (scuffle) to replace the word "struggle," which more correctly means having difficulty with some task?

Makes no sense to me, but baseball players and writers have never been known as masters of the language anyway.

Any other misused words you'd like to add to my rant?

 

[magnumo]

"On" the year

I remember when sportscasters started using the phrase "on the year" instead of "for the year"..... as in, "so-and-so has made 6 interceptions on the year." I don't know whether he was the original, but the first guy I remember doing it was Keith Jackson. I always enjoyed Jackson as a sportcaster, but despised his use of "on the year" rather than "for the year" or "during the season."

Now, most of them do it. I guess we should be grateful that this usage seems limited mostly to sports. I don't recall hearing a weather forecaster say anything like, "We've had 28 inches of rain on the year."

Just yesterday, I heard, "Albert Pujols has 35 home runs on the season." How in the world can Pujols' home runs be "on" the season???

Aside to smokey: I really like your avatar. As soon as I saw it, I recognized it as a Pirate Yearbook cover from many years ago. I have that yearbook, along with many others from the same era, stashed away somewhere. It's a shame that they stopped publishing yearbooks in that format. :sad: