Catch 22

Where did this phrase originate?

By Deane Barker • • tags: idiom •

It came from the novel – it’s a phrase invented by Joseph Heller for his 1962 novel of the same time. It did not exist prior to the novel, and took on a life of its own after the novel as an idiom to describe a frustrating loop where two choices are both prevented by the other.

“You mean there’s a catch?”

“Sure there’s a catch,” Doc Daneeka replied. “Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn’t really crazy.”

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind.

The number has no significance. In fact, it changed right before publication (it was originally going to be 18).

Why I Looked It Up

Of course, I knew about the idiom. And I knew it was a title of the novel. But I figured it had a life before the novel – like, the novel was named for a thing that existed.

I was wrong. In this sense, it’s a lot like Bucket List and La Dolce Vita.

Links from this – Bucket List October 25, 2021
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Links from this – La Dolce Vita May 19, 2022
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