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After arnie mentioned getting the word a day from Samosopedia, I have been getting their word a day. Today they wrote about basket case, and said, "Used to describe some who suffers sort of mental illness. From an urban legend that if you take a person who is 'mad' to NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience) the authorities would reward you with a basket of fruits." Then I checked it out on Quinion. He says it originated in America in 1919, referring to WWI and men who lost their extremities and were transported in baskets. According to Quinion, it was later that the sense of being unable to cope because of mental illness or that the sense of economic distress developed. I assume Quinion is right? | ||
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Um... I don't recall doing that. I did recommend the Johnson blog, though, here. While the Johnson article does seem to like Samosapedia, it does describe it as "[a] cross between Hobson-Jobson and Urban Dictionary", which doesn't give me much confidence in the accuracy of its definitions. The site is certainly good fun, though. Of the two derivations of "basket case", I think I believe Michael Quinion's.  Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. | |||
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Yes, it is fun. I didn't realize it was not trustworthy, though. Maybe I should axe it! | |||
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Here's what the OED online says about it:
After composing this I decided to do a Google search for the 1972 quote. I was surprised that the first hit was Wordcraft. The second was WorldCat. WorldCat describes Johnny got his gun, a 1938 book by Dalton Trumbo. WorldCat describes the book as a "...story of an American youth who survives World War I as an armless, legless, and faceless basket case with his mind intact." The book was subsequently serialized on radio, made into a movie, and turned into a stage production. The two sources that Kalleh cited, World Wide Words, by Michael Quinion, and The Phrase Finder, as well as the OED (all U.K. sources) say the origin of the term is U.S. The Word Detective (a U.S. source) agrees. But for some inexplicable reason, Wikipedia says it originated in Britain. | |||
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Good detective work, Tinman. I sure didn't remember that thread on basket case from 2005. On another site they'd call that a YART - Yet another rehashed topic. We have a lot of them, but I don't think that's a bad thing. People change. | |||
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The first definition I ever heard of basket case was also the military one. I've never heard the bit about receiving a basket of fruit from the NIMH. That's just nuts! Wordmatic | |||
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Yeah. I am going to delete that word a day site. While it is "fun," it is inaccurate. | |||
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