Other forms: wrangling, wrangles, wrangled
To wrangle is to argue long and noisily. A dispute that goes round in circles and never quite finishes.
It suits committees, lawyers and politics, and it takes over or about: wrangling over the budget, a legal wrangle that lasted years. The noun is common in headlines because it is short. American English has a separate and much older sense from ranching, since to wrangle horses or cattle is to round them up, and a wrangler is the person who does it. Herding difficult things is where the two senses meet.
Middle English
wranglen
English, today
wrangle
Built from
The verb is derived from Middle English wranglen, wrangle (“to contend with (someone) in a test of strength; (figuratively) to make misleading arguments to entrap”); from a Middle Dutch - or Middle Low German - word related to Middle Dutch wrangen and Middle Low German wrangen (“to cause an uproar; to struggle, wrestle”) (whence Low German wrangeln (“to wrangle”)), related to Middle Dutch wringen (“to twist; to wrest; to wring; to struggle, wrestle”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic wringaną (“to squeeze; to twist; to wring”). The noun is derived from the verb. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire
First appears in chapter 7 of A Man Called Ove.
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