Quag
/kwæɡ/noun
A soft, wet, boggy piece of ground; a quagmire.
Did you know?Quag is an old dialect word tied to the same muddy root as quagmire, a word that originally meant a bog so treacherous it could swallow you whole.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*kʷeg-
“To thicken, congeal, or become sticky/muddy”
Old English / Old Norse
Germanic
*kʷag- / *kwag-
“A soft, boggy mass or marshy ground”
Middle English
English
quag
“A swampy, marsh-like patch of ground”
16th Century
English
quagmire
“A bog or marsh; later, any difficult or precarious situation”
Modern English
English
quag
“A boggy, marshy place”