'Endless Loop' and 'Vicious Circle'?

[Mehrgan]

Hi,
Would you please tell me if both mean the same? Thank you so much indeed!

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi,
Would you please tell me if both mean the same? Thank you so much indeed!

Context please! Post the sentences in which you have seen these phrases and we will be able to help.

My immediate answer with no context to help is no, they don't mean the same thing, but that's because I'm making up a sentence in my head for each one and they have different meanings.

 

[Mehrgan]

Thanks. In fact, in a situation the wife insists that her husband should say a name, but the man says, it's just an 'endless loop', because if he says the name she gets the hump, and if he doesn't she gets the hump again and insists that he should say it, and if he doesn't,...!

As you see he's coomplaining that there's no point in saying the name because in any case she's going to keep insisting.


Hope I was clear enough, and thanks!

 

[emsr2d2]

I would say that the conversation they are having is on an "endless loop" but that the entire situation is a "vicious circle".

 

[SoothingDave]

An endless loop need not be vicious, and vicious circles are not normally endless. One of the features of a vicious circle is that things get worse and worse.