What’s the origin of the phrase ‘In a quandary’?
A quandary is simply a dilemma or state of extreme uncertainty. The word is now little used, apart from in the phrase in a quandary. This came in to use in the 16th century; for example, in John Lyly’s Euphues, the Anatomy of Wyt, 1579:
“Euphues … departed, leaving this olde gentleman in a great quandarie.”