# basket case



## superjules

Hola, communite' francophone!

 He/she is a 'basket case'.
Le  dictionnaire nous dit 'personne agite'.
But I think this could be a longer lasting, more generalized state than just 'anxious, nervous, shaky etc. Like depressed, desolate, distraught....
  quelques suggestions?
      merci
                       sj


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## geve

Hello, Superjules !

I didn't know the English expression, but it seems to fit the French "une boule de nerfs" ? or someone having "les nerfs en pelote" ?


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## Benjy

ball of nerves exists in english too. for me a basket case is just someone who is comepletely loony, without any special connotations of nervousness.


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## deliadame

Maybe the French would be something like "un fou furieux" ou "un taré" (if "basket case" is as colloquial as it sounds) ?


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## zaby

ou bien "il lui manque une case" ?


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## qeorqia

a "head case" is someone who is crazy, it's a slang expression.  I've never heard basket case.  In Australia and I'm sure in other English speaking countries, someone who is very nervous and worries a lot is called "a worry wart", this is colloquial though.


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## edwingill

un paquet de nerfs ou une boule de nerfs


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## Benjy

"Basket case is 1919, Amer.Eng., originally a literal reference to quadriplegic veterans of World War I. Fig. sense of "person emotionally unable to cope" is from 1967."

i just found this. i guess paquet/boule de nerfs is the most appropriate translation.

edit: ahh so it can mean both. thanks isotta  you know, sometimes i give myself the creeps.. sometimes my mind plays tricks on me, it all keeps adding up.........


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## Isotta

deliadame said:
			
		

> Maybe the French would be something like "un fou furieux" ou "un taré" (if "basket case" is as colloquial as it sounds) ?



You can use "basket case" in two different senses. I think it can indeed mean someone who is nervous, perhaps on medications that conflict with each other, perhaps with a sort of nervous self crisis, out of touch with reality. You can hear this in that old song by Green Day of that name. 

You also hear it in conversation to mean generally nuts ("he's a total basket case"), in which case "taré" works nicely. 

I'd also say that I hear it used more often to describe women than men. 

Z.


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## Isotta

Oh, and confirmation from the OED, which broadens it a bit.*

*basket case* _slang_ (orig. _U.S._), (_a_) a person (esp. a soldier) who has lost all four limbs; (_b_) _transf._, one who is emotionally or mentally unable to cope; something that is no longer functional, _esp._ a country that is unable to pay its debts or to feed its people;

Z.

 *Mods: if I've not made proper copyright protocol, feel free to operate.


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## Cath.S.

Isotta said:
			
		

> You also hear it in conversation to mean generally nuts ("he's a total basket case"), in which case "taré" works nicely.


That's the meaning of the word I am familiar with, my attempt at translation would be
_un cinglé total/un vrai cinglé_
_Taré _is a word I don't personally use but it also works fine.


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## Amityville

(coucou, egeule  )

"il est autorisé à sortir ? (ce vrai cinglé)


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## cirrus

Basket case is also used to describe countries which are in a state of collapse which could be either political or economic.


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## kiwi-di

cirrus said:


> Basket case is also used to describe countries which are in a state of collapse which could be either political or economic.


I know this is an old thread, but this subject raised its head in my French class tonight.

Particularly in the context of a country [with a pretty bad economy] being described as a _basket case.

_Our teacher is French, and had never heard the expression; no-one in the class could really find an appropriate translation to explain to her what this means.

I'd be grateful for some input from native French speakers.


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## archijacq

Harrap's: "pays invalide sur le plan économique"


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## polaire

deliadame said:


> Maybe the French would be something like "un fou furieux" ou "un taré" (if "basket case" is as colloquial as it sounds) ?




"Taré" was used in Amélie to describe some of the neurotic characters.  I, too, think that it might be a good translation of "basket case."


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## geve

kiwi-di said:


> I know this is an old thread, but this subject raised its head in my French class tonight.
> 
> Particularly in the context of a country [with a pretty bad economy] being described as a _basket case._


This wouldn't apply to a country I'm afraid, but there is a close idiom in French: _*panier percé*_, which means someone who can't keep his money. 

For a country, maybe something like _Un pays en plein marasme économique_.


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## kiwi-di

archijacq said:


> Harrap's: "pays invalide sur le plan économique"


Thanks for that.   We had been able to describe what was meant - I was really looking for an idiomatic expression, but it seems there isn't one when discussing countries.


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## archijacq

kiwi-di said:


> Thanks for that.   We had been able to describe what was meant - I was really looking for an idiomatic expression, but it seems there isn't one when discussing countries.




pays en pleine déconfiture


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## Moon Palace

Pays dont l'économie est en déroute? 
Pays (dont l'économie est) en capilotade?  
Pays qui va à vau-l'eau?


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## Bubaleh

If anyone cares, an important connotation associated with "basket case" has to do with hope of recovery.  If the person has no hope of recovering/is beyond hope, they're a basket case.  If you just want to say that someone's lost his mind or is neurotic, you wouldn't use the basket case expression.  I would assume the same connotation is used in the economic sense, although I personally have never heard it used in that context.  That is, you would say a country that is completely screwed up with no hope of recovery is a basket case.


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## Quake 3

Bonjour, je me permets de réouvrir ce thread car il est vraiment similaire à ce que je recherche moi.
Par contre, cela n'a rien avoir avec des termes économiques, cela va plus dans le sens initial du thread, qui rejoint l'idée de "personne agitée".
Comment donc traduire en français cette phrase, enfin surtout le terme basket case?:

*'You're a mental basket case, you know that?'*

Est-ce que l'adjectif "_mental_" apporte beaucoup de sens à l'expression "_basket case_"? Il s'agit ici d'une réplique du jeu vidéo Quake 3, lancée par les joueurs lorsque quelqu'un place le terme "_nervous breakdown_" dans la conversation. Suite à ce terme "mot-clé", les joueurs répondent alors d'eux-mêmes une série de différentes répliques, incluant la phrase ci-dessus, accompagnée de celles-ci:

_'Have you ever had a nervous breakdown?'
'You seem a bit twitchy.'
'Do you think you're having a nervous breakdown?'
'You're just stressed.'
'Let me give you some 'nerve damage' to go with that.'
'You'll feel better after shooting some stuff.'_

Merci de votre aide!


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## Cath.S.

Quake 3 said:


> Bonjour, je me permets de réouvrir ce thread car il est vraiment similaire à ce que je recherche moi.
> Par contre, cela n'a rien avoir avec des termes économiques, cela va plus dans le sens initial du thread, qui rejoint l'idée de "personne agitée".
> Comment donc traduire en français cette phrase, enfin surtout le terme basket case?:
> 
> *'You're a mental basket case, you know that?'*
> 
> Est-ce que l'adjectif "_mental_" apporte beaucoup de sens à l'expression "_basket case_"? Il s'agit ici d'une réplique du jeu vidéo Quake 3, lancée par les joueurs lorsque quelqu'un place le terme "_nervous breakdown_" dans la conversation. Suite à ce terme "mot-clé", les joueurs répondent alors d'eux-mêmes une série de différentes répliques, incluant la phrase ci-dessus, accompagnée de celles-ci:
> 
> _'Have you ever had a nervous breakdown?'_
> _'You seem a bit twitchy.'_
> _'Do you think you're having a nervous breakdown?'_
> _'You're just stressed.'_
> _'Let me give you some 'nerve damage' to go with that.'_
> _'You'll feel better after shooting some stuff.'_
> 
> Merci de votre aide!


Salut Quake ! 
_Mental basketcase_ me semble être un pléonasme, mais si l'effet recherché est justement une insistance à visée humoristique je te propose :
_t'es un vrai fou furieux malade de la tête, toi !_


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## viera

Ton cas est désespéré.


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## Psycher

egueule said:


> _t'es un vrai fou furieux malade de la tête, toi !_



qft!


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## Quake 3

Sorry guys for I'm very very late! Egueule your suggestion made me laugh out loud!! But it's actually very good!  You replied very accurately! Thanks a lot! Very nice one!


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## david314

edwingill said:


> *un paquet de nerfs *ou* une boule de nerfs *


 From my experience, this is _the usual definition_ of our term. I take no responsibility for unorthodox applications .  Oh Eddy, gone, but not forgotten.


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## SolangeC

A basket case can also be someone who is extremely anxious or even mentally tired, but just temporarily. A few examples:  She was a basket case until they located her missing child. He was a complete basket case after watching all 12 of his grandchildren while their moms went out for supper. (Both instances, the people got better after the situation was resolved)


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## akaAJ

A classic case of a tragic term being trivialized in the interest of _snappy, "in"_ speech.  See Dalton Trumbo's novel "Johnny Got His Gun", where the protagonist is literally in a basket litter, having lost his limbs, his sight, and his hearing.  The extended current meaning is "helpless", or, if one can amplify "helpless" rhetorically, "desperately helpless, screaming soundlessly to be heard".


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## geve

SolangeC said:


> A basket case can also be someone who is extremely anxious or even mentally tired, but just temporarily. A few examples:  She was a basket case until they located her missing child. He was a complete basket case after watching all 12 of his grandchildren while their moms went out for supper. (Both instances, the people got better after the situation was resolved)


For this specific context (temporary state) I would suggest : "il était *sur les nerfs*".


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## akaAJ

I stand my ground. "A basket case" is a severely maimed person, completely unable to help himself, perhaps including inability to communicate (see Trumbo's "Johnny got his gun" and other references to war-wounded. It is acceptable as a metaphor for "completely helpless".  Used in the example above, to mean "in a tizzy", it is a coarse, insensitive trivialization masked as hyperbole.


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## cirrus

Whilst it might have meant that some time ago, I am not certain that reflects current usage. The Greek economy might be referred to as a basket case - chronic problems which are hard to fix.


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## akaAJ

Application to the Greek economy is an acceptable stretch, if you think, as I do not, that the Greek economy is in fact `hopelessly´ helpless.  Some of the other applications were frivolous.


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## djudju

un cas désespéré ?


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