Much discussed on social media at the time of his State of the Union address, Obama’s use of a broad a struck many as odd, wrong even.
“Quagmire” is now the top trending word at Merriam-Webster’s website, which characterizes the pronunciation as “uncommon.” But Obama’s pronunciation is the standard in Great Britain, where the word as early as the 16th century transitioned from connoting a bog to a “situation that is full of problems,” as Merriam-Webster writes. And it wasn’t a slip of the tongue—this is just the way he says it.
Still, if you’re the president of a country that specializes in getting into quagmires, you probably should say it the American way.