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The idiom “in a fix” means being in trouble with no easy escape. The word “fix” comes from the Latin word “figere” meaning to fasten or attach. Other idioms like “in a pickle,” “in a stew,” and “in a jam” also mean being stuck in trouble. The phrase “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” is a popular idiom.
The English expression in a fix is not immediately transparent. It simply means being in trouble in a situation that will be difficult to fix or escape. Fix is normally a verb and the fact that the idiom uses it as a noun is confusing to non-native English speakers, children and anyone else who stops to consider where the expression in a fix comes from.
The sentence is not very transparent and the origins are practically lost in the mists of linguistic times, but some information on the history of the English word fix could help clarify the true meaning of the sentence. In Latin, figere means to fasten or to attach. In the Middle Ages the verb had been transformed into fixare. Something that has been fixed, therefore, has not been fixed but rather securely attached to something else. Someone in an unpleasant situation that is difficult to get out of is repaired, or in a fix.
This starts to make sense when you consider the sentence in a fix in the light of other similar ones. It might be easy to assume that expressions like in a pickle, a stew, or a jam were all coined by the same hungry word-monger, but in fact all three phrases are pretty apt metaphors for the same thing. In essence, all these phrases mean that you are stuck in trouble.
Centuries ago, pickles weren’t just those tart green things, but also the vinegar used to prepare them. Being in a pickle didn’t mean being inside the crunchy, sour, pickled cucumber, but being in the vinegar itself and unable to escape its slow transformation. Interestingly, someone who is pickled is drunk. Besides having its own set of problems, that idiom has nothing to do with being in trouble!
The phrases in a stew and a jam make a little more sense. Both are foods that are cooked to the point where there is a breakdown of the individual elements so they can blend together. Essentially, they are bolted together and the process cannot be reversed. Another phrase that also hints that I am trapped in trouble is that my goose is cooked. It seems reasonable to assume that the transformative quality of cooking a food to the point where it cannot return to its previous state adds something to the meaning of these sentences.
Fix is one of those English words with a primary meaning – to fix – as well as less frequently used secondary ones. The primary meaning is also captured by a number of idioms. A phrase that is popular with the older generation and is fun for the younger ones is don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.
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