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Anyone else learn a new meaning to the word "founder"? Thought it was a typo for "flounder" only to learn that it can also mean "to give way, collapse." Stay weird, English.


I think of it as "The ship foundered on the rocks".

Of course I suppose if a fish did the same thing we might have a foundering flounder.


dictionary.com says that flounder may have come from a combination of flounce and founder (back around 1570 or 1580).


"founder" is a fairly gruesome injury to horses' hooves. For most of my life this was the meaning that would have first come to mind. HN has fixed that...


For me the first meaning that comes to mind is a leader of the American Revolutionary War. Wig and all. And I'm not even American.


I didn't know this either. Amusing.

Many founders do founder.

verb (used without object)

(of a ship, boat, etc.) to fill with water and sink.

to fall or sink down, as buildings, ground, etc.:

Built on a former lake bed, the building has foundered nearly ten feet.

to become wrecked; fail utterly:

The project foundered because public support was lacking.

to stumble, break down, or go lame, as a horse:

to become ill from overeating.

Veterinary Pathology. (of a horse) to suffer from laminitis.


See also the double meaning of “career”.


Huh. Crazy. I never new that meaning of "career" and have only used careen in that sense. Which according to Google is a North American thing.




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