Talk:Harry Gordon Selfridge/Archives/2016

In 1947, he died in straitened circumstances[?]

We currently have a docudrama on UK TV about Harry Selfridge! Anyone know and care to explain what 'straitened' means in the context of death? Reads like the text was copied from an old publication.1812ahill (talk) 21:47, 6 January 2013 (UTC)

'Straitened' seems quite anachronistic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.211.143.153 (talk) 22:47, 6 January 2013 (UTC)

According to the Free Dictionary it means:

Adj. 1. in straitened circumstances - not having enough money to pay for necessities hard up, impecunious, penniless, penurious, pinched poor - having little money or few possessions; "deplored the gap between rich and poor countries"; "the proverbial poor artist living in a garret" — Preceding unsigned comment added by Smareburger (talk • contribs) 03:44, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

At my age I don't very often run into nontechnical words I haven't seen before, but this is one of them. I've looked into it and as far as I can see, not only is straitenend appropriate (as a wild guess I'm thinking it's somehow related to straitjacked -- tight, constraining, etc.) in 19th-c writing strained circumstances hardly appears at all, by comparison. I'm guessing (and it's just a guess) that somewhere along the way straitened got corrupted to strained in this context, and took hold with a vengeance. EEng (talk) 23:26, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

I think the phrase is appropriate and neither anachronistic nor too obscure. A Google Books search for the phrase "straitened circumstances" produces 161,000 results. (And see Matthew 7:14 for a well-known cognate example.) 45ossington (talk) 08:14, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

I can assure you that in American usage it is obscure, though not too obscure. But I've added a link to wiktionary for those with straitened vocabularies. Spoke too soon -- gone from the text. EEng (talk) 12:56, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

Present or not, I cannot agree that it is so obscure in AE. Mathglot (talk) 00:03, 25 May 2016 (UTC)