To figure out what "quagmire" means, you need to look into dictionaries and delve into the etymology of this word. It turns out that it is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. Of course, it is difficult for city dwellers to imagine today what a quagmire is in the literal sense of the word, so it is worth looking into this issue in more detail.
Etymology of the word
First there was the verb "shake". It was its root that gave impetus to the birth of the words "shaking", "quagmire".
What is "shake", almost everyone knows. This is a reciprocating movement directed towards an object. As a result of it, a shudder occurs on the surface of what is being shaken. Therefore, thinking about what a quagmire is, one can come to the conclusion that it is something with a swaying surface.
Funny etymological dictionary
Based on the above, many words can be brought under this definition, which in fact are not at all synonymous with “quagmire”. Their meanings are different. But, nevertheless, wits have compiled a cheerful dictionary, inwhich collected words that either have a shaking surface, or themselves create a trembling of objects, often living ones. Let's laugh together. So, comic "synonyms" for the word "quagmire":
- jelly (jelly, jelly);
- cheeks (thick sides) of an overweight person;
- disco;
- attraction;
- ride by car on a country road;
- chills (fever, hangover);
- extortionist;
- lover - lover of expensive gifts;
- wife on her husband's payday;
- bailiff;
- racket;
- exam;
- line at the dental office.
This list is perfect for fun parties or KVN performances, but does not answer the question of what a quagmire is.
Direct meaning
Actually, a swamp is a piece of land with excessive moisture. The soil there loses rigidity, becomes viscous. At a time when someone is walking through the quagmire, the nearby surface trembles, oscillates, shakes. That is why these places got their name.
Synonymous with "quagmire" - "swamp". It usually appears on the site of stagnant reservoirs overgrown with vegetation. 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 deposits of hard rocks are located under the soil layer, thenatural drainage. Precipitation falling in these areas does not go deep, but remains on the surface. Add to this a small evaporation, found, for example, in dense forests - these are the main reasons for the appearance of a swamp.
Swamp is often referred to as unsteady places through which it is difficult to pass. They have the ability to pull deep into the doughy peat mass that makes up the upper layer of the surface, all objects that have got there. Many people and animals die trying to get through the marshland.
A swamp that sucks in
The figurative meaning of the word just follows from this property of the swamp. They often say about life situations when a person feels hopelessness and danger: “Sucked in by a quagmire.”
And indeed, having decided, for example, once on a small crime, one has to make more and more mistakes, trying to hide what has already been done. A person, by and large, behaves almost the same as one who is trying to get out of the swamp - takes a variety of actions. However, any movement only contributes to immersion in depth.
This meaning is vividly demonstrated by the famous song from “Operation Y and Shurik’s other adventures” performed by Yuri Nikulin. “I was sucked into a dangerous quagmire, and my life is an eternal game,” sings the hero, recently released from prison, who understands that the past is unlikely to let him go and he will never be able to radically change his life.
Boring and graylike in a swamp
There is another figurative meaning of the word "quagmire". It means inertia, 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 is the miniature "Swamp" (author L. Ulanova).
“The life of accountant Pronkin was boring and bleak. It looked like a stagnant swamp, a quagmire - it was the same gray and unsightly.
Relations with his wife, a colorless and dumb woman, more like a bug-eyed toad than a woman, also resembled a quagmire - useless, meaningless, unpromising.
But the worst thing in Pronkin's life was the hours he spent at work. Yeah, that's where the real quagmire was, from which you just wanted to howl! The boss, a conservative to the marrow of his bones, forbade accountants to use not only calculators - he even took away the old adding machine and closed it in his safe. And therefore, antediluvian wooden abacus lay on the table in front of each worker.
"Click-Click," their knuckles thumped dryly, hitting each other. And it seemed to Pronkin that it was a long-legged bittern snapping its beak, standing knee-deep in a marsh bog. She's waiting for some stupid toad to pop out of the stinking slush. That's when the bittern will bite her and swallow at once.
And Pronkin did not doubt for a minute that this toad would definitely turn out to be him.
But life is amazing. Suddenly, the conservative chief was transferred to the regional center, and insteadhe was imprisoned … Pronkin! It was so weird, so amazing!
Pronkin was happy. He was very happy. He even allowed himself to drink two glasses of compote at lunch instead of one. And then he entered his (yes, yes, his!) office, opened the safe.
Having wiped the adding machine with a cloth, Pronkin looked somewhere through the wall for a minute… Then he locked the safe again.
… The newly minted chief sat at his desk and listened to the terrible bird-bittern snapping with its beak, standing knee-deep in the bog, and enjoyed the fact that now she would hunt for other toads - she would no longer get to Pronkin … »
