I just learned that the origin of this word is “that which is predicated,” which is to say, more or less, any condition that can be described or specified, whether good, bad, or neutral. Not much different in this respect from the word “situation,” that which is situated. In other words: the present English meaning of “predicament” — “a difficult problem” — must be some kind of fossilization of a now-forgotten euphemistic phrase akin to the current “We have a situation.”