# Basket Case
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 13, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156 "2005-04-13T18:14:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Greathouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greathouse)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/1 "2005-04-13T18:14:05Z")
Does anyone know how the term Basket Case came about? It is my understanding that the term is used in reference to crazy people, but I’m actually not sure about that either.
Thanks in advance for the help.
---
### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/2 "2005-04-13T18:21:47Z")
> [@](#):
>
> basket case
> n.
> Slang. One that is in a completely hopeless or useless condition: “He immediately becomes a psychological basket case, embittered to the point of craziness” (New York). “After World War I, when the Hapsburg empire was split up, little Austria seemed a basket case” (Paul A. Samuelson).
> Offensive Slang. A person, especially a soldier, who has had all four limbs amputated.
> Our Living Language In popular usage basket case refers to someone in a hopeless mental condition, but in origin it had a physical meaning. In the grim slang of the British army during World War I, it referred to a quadruple amputee. This is one of several expressions that first became popular in World War I, or that entered American army slang from British English at that time. Some of these words reflect technical inventions and innovations of the time, such as parachute, blimp, tank, and bomber, and still have clear military associations. Others have lost most or all of their military connotations, such as ace, chow, slacker, and dud.
Grim business, slang.
---
### Author:  [@Greathouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greathouse)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/3 "2005-04-13T18:26:29Z")
Damn!
That’s a bit harsh. I don’t think I’ll be using that term again so willy-nilly.
Thanks for the info.
---
### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/4 "2005-04-14T00:13:41Z")
**Bosda**. It’s not only polite but required that you cite your reference when using that large a quote. I’m sure you meant to.
The term evidently appeared in or around 1919 and was a rumor that spread in the US Army that vets came home with no arms or legs. It was denied by the US Surgeon General. But that’s what the term meant at that time. And there’s no evidence that I can find that the Brits used it first.
The term was first used around 1952 to indicate a person who is unstable mentally.
---
### Author:  [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/5 "2005-04-14T00:26:01Z")
We have used the term for decades to mean a motorcycle that is basicallly complete but in pieces… in a basket. There are “Rolling Basket Cases” where it is mostly assembled but needs a lot of work and /or rebuilding. As a result, we have often refered to people as being basket cases as well… needing a LOT of work.
This seems much nicer than the one coming from military slang (and this is the first time I’ve heard this application)
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/6 "2005-04-14T02:23:38Z")
> [@samclem](#):
>
> **Bosda**. It’s not only polite but required that you cite your reference when using that large a quote. I’m sure you meant to.
I’ll help him out.
[Dictionary.com](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=basket%20case)
---
### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/7 "2005-04-14T03:12:12Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Our Living Language In popular usage basket case refers to someone in a hopeless mental condition, but in origin it had a physical meaning. In the grim slang of the British army during World War I, it referred to a quadruple amputee.
I still don’t see the link between a quadruple amputee and baskets.
I always thought the mental breakdown reference was to the cliché about what inmates at the booby hatch did all day; weave baskets.
---
### Author:  [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/8 "2005-04-14T03:15:46Z")
Literally - bring them home in a basket. I guess it’s akin to “Come home with your shield, or on it.”
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/9 "2005-04-14T03:34:21Z")
[Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye](http://www.bartleby.com/250/28.html)
> [@](#):
>
> While going the road to sweet Athy,
> Hurroo! hurroo!
> While going the road to sweet Athy,
> Hurroo! hurroo!
> While going the road to sweet Athy,
> A stick in my hand and a drop in my eye,
> A doleful damsel I heard cry:
> “Och, Johnny, I hardly knew ye!
>
> “With drums and guns, and guns and drums,
> The enemy nearly slew ye;
> My darling dear, you look so queer,
> Och, Johnny, I hardly knew ye!
>
> . . .
>
> “You haven’t an arm and you haven’t a leg,
> Hurroo! hurroo!
> You haven’t an arm and you haven’t a leg,
> Hurroo! hurroo!
> You haven’t an arm and you haven’t a leg,
> You’re an eyeless, noseless, chickenless egg;
> You’ll have to be put with a bowl to beg:
> Och, Johnny, I hardly knew ye!
> With drums, etc.
Irish, pre 1860s.
---
### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/10 "2005-04-14T03:59:11Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> [Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye](http://www.bartleby.com/250/28.html)
>
> Irish, pre 1860s.
But cited from a 1922 anthology. Where does the pre-1860 part come in?
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/11 "2005-04-14T04:28:36Z")
> [@samclem](#):
>
> But cited from a 1922 anthology. Where does the pre-1860 part come in?
The song is supposed to be the origin of the Civil War song “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” (1863), and is sung to the same tune. I have not been able to find a specific date for it yet, though, and the different accounts of the origin of the Civil War song are somewhat contradictory.
This site says that the Irish composer of the Civil War song, Patrick Gilmore, “may have” been inspired by the Irish tune, but he claimed it was based on a Negro spiritual:
> **[When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again](https://loc.gov/item/ihas.200000024)**
>
> Article. When Johnny comes marching home again Hurrah! Hurrah!
This site claims Gilmore said he derived it from the Irish song:
[http://www.instantknowledgenews.com/johnny.htm](http://www.instantknowledgenews.com/johnny.htm)
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/12 "2005-04-14T04:35:10Z")
Incidentally, I recalled the song because of it contained a reference to an armless and legless soldier. However, I was struck by the use of the word “egg” in relation to someone who was a “basket case.” Apparently the song long predates the latter usage, but I just wonder whether it might have had some influence, since Irish troops in WW I would probably have known it.
---
### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/13 "2005-04-14T10:33:01Z")
> [@Snakescatlady](#):
>
> Literally - bring them home in a basket. I guess it’s akin to “Come home with your shield, or on it.”
I don’t know, it just doesn’t sound right. That is a pretty big basket, to hold a human torso; if size doesn’t matter, it could just as easily been “bucket case” or “washtub case”. Why basket?
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/14 "2005-04-14T10:56:57Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#):
>
> I don’t know, it just doesn’t sound right. That is a pretty big basket, to hold a human torso; if size doesn’t matter, it could just as easily been “bucket case” or “washtub case”. Why basket?
I think the term ‘basket’ actually refers to a wicker wheelchair, like [this one](http://www.thebakken.org/artifacts/database/artifact.asp?type=category&category=Z3.2&id=4263).
---
### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/15 "2005-04-14T12:58:45Z")
> [@samclem](#):
>
> **Bosda**. It’s not only polite but required that you cite your reference when using that large a quote. I’m sure you meant to.
>
> The term evidently appeared in or around 1919 and was a rumor that spread in the US Army that vets came home with no arms or legs. It was denied by the US Surgeon General. But that’s what the term meant at that time. And there’s no evidence that I can find that the Brits used it first.
>
> The term was first used around 1952 to indicate a person who is unstable mentally.
My apologies.
It came from here
[http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict](http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict)
---
### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/16 "2005-04-14T16:33:48Z")
Around these parts (for some reason I get the sense it’s a regionalism) ladies who are recalling periods of depression or other mental illness (more specifically the sort of thing they used to call a nervous breakdown) will say “I dropped my basket”. Does that seem like a related thing, or derived later, or something else entirely?
---
### Author:  [@Bewildebeest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bewildebeest)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/17 "2005-04-14T17:31:34Z")
Doesn’t the basket in basket case refer to what you carry all the parts off the battle field in? Most of the parts are there. They’re just not put together, like Nicodemus’ motorcycle example.
---
### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/18 "2005-04-14T19:02:55Z")
> [@Bewildebeest](#):
>
> Doesn’t the basket in basket case refer to what you carry all the parts off the battle field in? Most of the parts are there. They’re just not put together, like Nicodemus’ motorcycle example.
No.
Wheelchair shortages in World War One led to the use of wicker baskets, carried by volunteers, to transport multiple amputee patients.
Of course, sheets, pillows and blankets _were_ added for patient comfort, when available.
---
### Author:  [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basket-case/299156/19 "2005-04-14T19:57:35Z")
Wicker stretchers (i.e. baskets) were used for a long time to move people who were unable to walk for whatever reason. Wikipedia has an article on [James Augustus Grant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Augustus_Grant) and his African explorations, quoting his book: “Being unable to walk, I was placed in a wicker stretcher (April 14, 1862), and trotted off on the heads of four Waganda (tribesmen of the area).”
I also found an article mentioning [this](http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1821.htm) 1892 Red Cross ambulance with a wicker stretcher inside to cushion the patient.