ineluctable

[mathman]

"Ineluctable" seems to be almost synonymous with "inevitable", but I feel there is a subtle difference, which I find hard to express. Can anyone clarify?

 

[DaveC426913]

"Ineluctable" seems to be almost synonymous with "inevitable", but I feel there is a subtle difference, which I find hard to express. Can anyone clarify?

They do seem to be interchangeable and are used as such in a lot of cases. Though there are some cases where it seems they are not. To-wit:

Lee has the irritating habit of arguing his opinions as ineluctable facts. ...

This application of word mean is not synonymous with inevitable so much as it is synonymous with incontrovertible.

 

[sculptor]

root word has to do with avoidance via struggle
so ineluctable would = cannot be avoided by struggle

 

[Sarkus]

Both mean "unable to be avoided" (as does unavoidable... too many words for the same thing!! ) but I think the etymology might help here.
Inevitable comes from evitare, meaning to avoid, whereas ineluctable comes from eluctari, meaning to struggle out of.
So I'd see inevitable being about something in the future, whereas ineluctable is to do with a current or past position. So for example, something like: "it was inevitable that Tom would go to jail for his crime, even though his circumstances at the time were ineluctable."

But DaveC's and sculptor's answers are probably better.

 

[DaveC426913]

So I'd see inevitable being about something in the future, whereas ineluctable is to do with a current or past position.

:like:

 

[mathman]

Thanks. I remember when I first encountered "ineluctable". When I was in college I decided to read Joyce's Ulysses and hit it around page 30(?) and I got completely stuck.

 

[Sarkus]

You got that far!! You're a far better man than I!