Each week The Old Editor will attempt to address your entreaties for information and advice on grammar and usage, writing, writer-editor etiquette, and related subjects.
The Old Editor does not address marital and relationship matters, dietary questions, or automobile mechanics.
The question: "I've noticed some educated types believe they are 'wrangling' an interview/ appointment? Is this possible?"
The Old Editor answers: They are, the Old Editor believes, wangling an interview—accomplishing by indirect or clever means, or managing despite difficulties. To wrangle is to take part in a noisy or angry argument. Garner's Modern English Usage says that the confusion of the two words has increased steadily over the past sixty years.
The origin of wangle is obscure. The New Oxford American Dictionary identifies it as nineteenth-century printers' slang and conjectures that it may be based on waggle. Wrangle dates from Middle English and is related to the German wrangen, "to struggle."
At Cambridge, wrangler is an academic term. The Senior Wrangler is the undergraduate who receives the highest mark in the Mathematical Tripos. The next-highest scorer is the Second Wrangler, &c. In the United States a wrangler is a cowhand.
"Educated types" tend to get a bit shirty when you correct their usage, so you may choose not to wrangle with them over what they think wrangle means.
Got a question for The Old Editor? Write to him at john.mcintyre@baltsun.com. Your name will not be used unless you specifically authorize it.