To understand what “quagmire” means, you need to look into the dictionaries and delve into the etymology of this word. It turns out that it is not so simple as it might seem at first glance. Of course, it is difficult for the townspeople to imagine today what a quagmire is in the direct sense of the word, therefore it is worthwhile to deal with this issue in more detail.
Etymology of the word
First was the verb "shake." It was his root that gave impetus to the birth of the words “shaking”, “quagmire”.
What is “shake", almost everyone knows. This is a reciprocating movement directed at any object. As a result, the surface of what is shaking occurs. Therefore, thinking about what a quagmire is, one can come to the conclusion that this is something with a swaying surface.
Merry etymological dictionary
Based on the foregoing, a lot of words can be summed up under this definition, which in fact are not at all synonymous with “quagmire”. Their meanings are different. But, nevertheless, the witters made up a fun dictionary, in which they collected words that either have a shaking surface, or they themselves create a trembling of objects, often living. Let's laugh together. So, comic "synonyms" for the word "quagmire":
- jelly (aspic, jelly);
- cheeks (thick sides) of an overweight person;
- disco;
- attraction;
- a trip by car on a country road;
- chills (fever, hangover);
- extortionist;
- lover - lover of expensive gifts;
- wife on husband's salary day;
- bailiff;
- racket;
- exam;
- turn to the dental office.
This list is ideal for fun parties or KVN performances, but does not answer the question of what a quagmire is.
Direct meaning
In fact, a quagmire is a piece of land with excess moisture. Soil there loses rigidity, becomes viscous. While someone is walking along a bog, the surface nearby shudders, oscillates, shakes. That is why such places got their name.
The synonym for “quagmire” is “swamp”. Usually it appears on the site of standing reservoirs overgrown with vegetation. The dying parts of shrubs and grasses fall into a humid environment and begin to decompose, turning into peat.
The second option for the appearance of swamps is waterlogging of the soil. In places with low relief - lowlands, pits, valleys, ravines - water begins to accumulate. If permafrost or hard rock deposits are located under the soil layer, natural drainage is disturbed. Precipitation in these areas does not go deep, but remains on the surface. Add to this the small evaporation found, for example, in dense forests - these are the main reasons for the appearance of the swamp.
Quagmits are often called unsteady places that are difficult to pass through. They have the ability to draw deep into the pasty peat mass, which makes up the top layer of the surface, all the objects that got there. Many people and animals die trying to overcome the marshland.
The quagmire that is addictive
The figurative meaning of the word just follows from this property of the swamp. Of life situations, when a person feels hopelessness and danger, they often say: "A quagmire has sucked in."
And indeed, having decided, for example, once upon a small crime, one has to make more and more mistakes, trying to hide what he has already done. A person, by and large, behaves almost the same way as the one who is trying to get out of the swamp - takes a variety of actions. However, any movement of it only contributes to immersion inland.
The famous song from “Operation“ Y ”and other adventures of Shurik” performed by Yuri Nikulin clearly demonstrates this meaning. “I was sucked by a dangerous quagmire, and my life is an eternal game,” sings a hero who has recently been released from prison, who understands that the past is unlikely to let him go and that he will never be able to radically change his life.
Boring and gray like in a swamp
There is another figurative meaning of the word “quagmire”. It means stagnation, stagnation, hopelessness. This is the name of the place of work or residence, team, family, lifestyle. An example of the use of the word in this meaning can serve as a miniature "Quagmire" (author L. Ulanova).
“The life of accountant Pronkin was boring and bleak. It resembled a standing swamp, a quagmire - the same was gray and unsightly.
Relations with his wife, a colorless and wordless woman, more like a bug-eyed toad than a woman, also resembled a quagmire - useless, meaningless, unpromising.
But the worst hours in Pronkin’s life were the hours he spent at work. Yeah, that’s where there was a real quagmire from which I just wanted to howl! The boss, a conservative to the core, forbade accountants to use not only calculators - he even selected the old arithmometer and closed it in his safe. And therefore, before each employee on the table lay antediluvian wooden scores.
“Click-to-click,” their knuckles knocked dryly, hitting each other. But it seemed to Pronkin that this long-legged bittern was snapping its beak, standing knee-deep in a swamp bog. She waits for some stupid toad to pop out of the smelly slurry. Here, bittern and grab her, and swallow at once.
And in the fact that he will surely turn out to be this toad, Pronkin did not doubt for a minute.
But life is an amazing thing. Suddenly, the conservative chief was transferred to the regional center, and instead they put him ... Pronkin! It was so weird, so amazing!
Pronkin was happy. He was very happy. He even allowed himself to drink two glasses of compote instead of one at lunch. And then he entered his (yes, yes, his!) Office, opened the safe.
Having wiped the arithmometer with a cloth, Pronkin looked somewhere through the wall for a minute ... Then he again closed the safe with a key.
... The newly-minted boss sat at his desk and listened to how the terrible bittern bird clicks with its beak, standing knee-deep in the quagmire, and enjoyed the fact that now it would hunt for other toads - it couldn’t get to Pronkin yet ... ”