contend » content
Spotted in the wild:
- With Accounting Information System (AIS), the fine art of bookkeeping takes on a new meaning. Businesses no longer need to content with piles of logbooks that tend to collect heaps of dust. (Develop An Accounting Package Using VB)
- [Planned Parenthood] does have a lot to content with regarding Margaret Sanger. (link)
Analyzed or reported by:
- Erika at Kittenishly Doomy Thoughts (link)
_Contend (v.)_ derives from Latin _contendere_ (stretch out, strive after) and _contain (v.)_ from _continere_ (hold together), so both go back to the same root. The adjective _content_ (in the sense of “satisfied”) confuses the issue further. There is a continuum of meanings stretching from “struggling against something” via “reluctantly putting up with something” and “accepting the presence of something ” to “being satisfied about something”.
So it is no wonder that a [Google search](www.google.com/search?hl=…) for “_[ need | needs | has | have] to content with_” throws up results that fall on any point on this scale, most of them somewhere around the “put up with” point.