The Origins of “Basket Case”

A “basket case” is someone or something that is totally messed up and unable to function. According to The Phrase Finder, the term originated during or shortly after World War I and described soldiers who’d had both their arms and legs amputated and needed to be carried around in baskets. Interestingly, two of the three examples of “basket case” cited by The Phrase Finder come from the U.S. military and deny the existence of any actual basket cases. It seems to me that, even if there were no quadruple amputees being carried around military hospitals in baskets, the term must have been in common use before that first denial (which is dated to 1919). Perhaps basket cases were a gruesome rumor and the term offered soldiers a means of making light of a worst-case scenario—but of course I’m only speculating. By 1967 “basket case” had taken on its more modern meaning of a “person emotionally unable to cope” (Online Etymology Dictionary).