contend

Here the verb is held in place by its preposition: the difficulty arrives through with, never as a direct object. One contends with freezing weather or rising costs, not contends them. Because with cannot be dropped, it often lands at the end of a clause, as in hazards "to contend with", and that is natural English. Against the sense of rivalry, with names a burden to bear rather than an opponent to beat.

The root sense is one of stretching. Latin contendere joins com- "together" and tendere "to stretch", the same verb inside tend, attend, extend and intend, so rivals strain against each other. The opponent follows with, as in the King James Bible of 1611: "neither contend with them in battle." Shakespeare's Henry V lets two kingdoms simply contend, with no object at all.

The claiming verb of argument, usually followed by a that-clause stating the position. It belongs to papers, panels, court filings and news reports. The Supreme Court's Trump v. Anderson begins with Colorado voters who contend that Section 3 bars Trump. The that may be dropped (his critics contend the term expired). Writers use the verb to present a claim as one side's position rather than as settled fact.

Argument treated as a contest, where the dispute itself is the point and its subject follows about or over. The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety (1667) complains of things "so fiercely contended about" that proved false or trivial. With for, the verb tips toward taking a side. Locke writes of innate principles "which some contend for", which is one step from the "maintain that" meaning.

Here the struggle has a prize, and the prize follows for. In Dryden's Epistle III to the Lady Castlemain, vain men "contend for what you only can bestow". The McMahons' 5 Marks of Christian Resolve (2020) gives the church a duty to contend for its charge "even unto death". Set it beside the rivalry meaning: with names the opponent, while for names what is at stake.