Dilemma

di-lem′a, n. a form of argument in which the maintainer of a certain proposition is committed to accept one of two alternative propositions each of which contradicts his original contention: a position where each of two alternative courses (or of all the feasible courses) is eminently undesirable: a trying practical difficulty. The argument was called a 'horned syllogism,' and the victim compared to a man certain to be impaled on one or other of the horns of an infuriated bull, hence the Horns of a dilemma : the usual phrase Landed in a dilemma is, or suggests, a mixed metaphor.— adj. Dilemmat′ic . [L.,—Gr. dilēmma — di- , twice, double, lēmma , an a umption— lambanein , to take.]