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quagmire (KWAG-mayuhr) - n., a soft boggy area of land that gives way underfoot; a difficult, precarious, or entrapping position.
The Vietnam War was sometimes called The Quagmire, and the word has been applied to several other wars. The bog sense dates from the 1570s, the now more common metaphoric extension from 1775. Formed from quag, a now obsolete word for bog/marsh + mire, another now obsolete word for bog/marsh, though it has survived as a verb meaning to get stuck in. So, like, literally "boggy bog"? IDK
---L.
The Vietnam War was sometimes called The Quagmire, and the word has been applied to several other wars. The bog sense dates from the 1570s, the now more common metaphoric extension from 1775. Formed from quag, a now obsolete word for bog/marsh + mire, another now obsolete word for bog/marsh, though it has survived as a verb meaning to get stuck in. So, like, literally "boggy bog"? IDK
---L.
