Old school

My parents generation talk about being ‘under strain’. These days that has morphed to being ‘under stress’.

Its an interesting shift; scientifically, stress is applied externally and strain is the response to stress.

The relationship between the stress and strain that a particular person displays is known as that particular person’s stress–strain curve. It is unique for each person and is found by recording the amount of deformation (strain) at distinct intervals of a variety of loadings (stress).

Being ‘under strain’ implies a little more personal responsibility as to what the outcomes are to applied stress. I prefer the old lingo.