Originally Posted by
Trakhak
Like the misuse of "jive" where "jibe" is clearly meant, such decisions are always contextual. The issue is whether some readers will be distracted by a particular choice of a word or phrase.
You're a careful writer, which means that you're a careful reader, so while you may not object to "flounder" in this context, there are any number of parallel examples that, at the very least, likely give you pause - particularly in cases where an older word is being supplanted gradually in common speech by another, similarly spelled word. I wonder where you stand on "jibe" versus "jive," for example. Or could you care less? (Joke.)
I jibe with your jive, daddy-O.
As an editor, your job (I presume) was to help make writing accessible to an intended audience -- which might often involve word (and other) choices which would make less sense to people like me. But in
seypat 's context, 'flounder' was a better choice than 'founder,' based on the actual dictionary definitions of the two words.