When we find ourselves in a mess and we don't know how to solve it, we often wonder how we can “get out of the jam”.
This word is defined by the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (DRAE) as “hindrance or obstacle” , and in the Dictionary of Synonyms we also find the following equivalents: stumbling block, entanglement, mess, dilemma, setback, inconvenience and obstacle. And also: trouble, trance, problem, danger, gap, compromise, muddle, doubt, jam, nuisance, jam, labyrinth, stumble and conflict.
The DRAE also includes the meaning of quagmire as "place where traffic jams occur" , which connects with its original meaning of jam, "quagmire or place where carriages , horses or people got stuck."
And it is that the word impasse comes from tollo, "quagmire, hole or puddle formed by rainwater", which the Academy collected as early as 1925. In short, to be in the quagmire is to be stuck in the mud up to your ears.
