Stickle At

[peterking]

Hi, I'd like to pick your brains about the usage of stickle at, which seems to be a rarity in present-day English. By which I mean it would be hard to find a situation in which a writer would use stickle at when working on an article. At the same time, collinsdictionary.com suggests that stickle at has this meaning"to have objections; scruple (at)".

My question is would it be okay to use stickle at in this fashion, say, someone simply writes I still stickle at accepting the job offer?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tarheel]

Hi, I'd like to pick your brains about the usage of stickle at, which seems to be a rarity in present-day English. By which I mean it would be hard to find a situation in which a writer would use stickle at when working on an article. At the same time, collinsdictionary.com suggests that stickle at has this meaning"to have objections; scruple (at)".

My question is would it be okay to use stickle at in this fashion, say, someone simply writes I still stickle at accepting the job offer?

[Deleted.]

Nobody will know what you mean.

 

[peterking]

Nobody will know what you mean.

I'm down with that. Problem is collinsdictionary.com says one of the meanings of stickle is
"2. to have objections; scruple (at)". Here is the link to that website:https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/stickle.

Could it be English-speaking worthies, say, learned sorts living in antiquity, were not loth to use stickle at like this? I'm just curious.

 

[emsr2d2]

If it's in the dictionary, presumably someone at some time used it. Who knows if they were "worthies" or how long ago they might have lived! It doesn't really matter. We don't use it now and I'd discourage any learner from trying to use it. I'd never heard it until this thread.

 

[Tarheel]

"I'm down with that" works fine.

 

[probus]

The related noun stickler is still in common use but the verb stickle has faded sigificantly and its downward trend continues, according to Google Ngrams.

Google Books Ngram Viewer

Google Books Ngram Viewer

books.google.com

 

[peterking]

The related noun stickler is still in common use but the verb stickle has faded sigificantly and its downward trend continues, according to Google Ngrams.

Google Books Ngram Viewer

Google Books Ngram Viewer

books.google.com

Thanks. I won't use stickle at as well. Sometimes I use jib at, boggle at, and quail at.

 

[5jj]

jib at, boggle at, and quail at.

Boggle and quail are not appropriate in your sentence. Jib is old-fashioned.

 

[Tarheel]

Thanks. I won't use stickle at as well. Sometimes I use jib at, boggle at, OR quail at.

Two things. One, that doesn't really make sense. (What do you mean by "as well" there?) Two, I would have to guess at the the meaning of any of them.

 

[Tarheel]

The related noun stickler is still in common use but the verb stickle has faded sigificantly and its downward trend continues, according to Google Ngrams.

Google Books Ngram Viewer

Google Books Ngram Viewer

books.google.com

What about "stickle at"?

 

[5jj]

Almost non-existent: Ngram.

 

[White Hat]

English is a VERY rich language. There are so many terms that are almost never used in daily life. In general, I'd try to keep it as simple as possible. Even when writing academic papers.

 

[peterking]

Boggle and quail are not appropriate in your sentence. Jib is old-fashioned.

There you go. It would seem to me that most scribes living in America and Britain are not keen on using boggle and quail in their articles; only a writer at Fortune magazine once used quail at in an article featuring a floundering behemoth struggling to turn a profit.

 

[peterking]

Two things. One, that doesn't really make sense. (What do you mean by "as well" there?) Two, I would have to guess at the the meaning of any of them.

There is a case to be made that some literary types living in English-speaking nations used stickle at or stickle for in their novels back to the 18 or 19 century. D H Lawrence also used some gnomic words that you can't find in the pages of The New Yorker.

Just a thought.

 

[Tarheel]

Two things. One, it's 18th or 19th century. Two, since it was 100 or 200 years ago, you shouldn't be surprised that things have changed.

 

[peterking]

Two things. One, it's 18th or 19th century. Two, since it was 100 or 200 years ago, you shouldn't be surprised that things have changed.

You are spot-on. Thanks for your insight.

 

[Rover_KE]

I'm down with that. The problem is collinsdictionary.com says one of the meanings of stickle is
"2. to have objections; scruple (at)". Here is the link to that website:https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/stickle.

.

"I'm down with that" works fine.

'I'm down with that' is US slang. [click]. Most British English-speakers wouldn't understand it.

 

[emsr2d2]

'I'm down with that' is US slang. [click]. Most British English-speakers wouldn't understand it.

I agree with sentence 1 but not with sentence 2. Everyone I know would be familiar with it.

 

[5jj]

Everyone I know would be familiar with it.

This geriatric isn't.

 

[emsr2d2]

This geriatric isn't.

Ah, OK. I'll amend my statement to "Almost everyone I know ...".