Catch-22

See also: catch-22

English

WOTD – 11 November 2015

Alternative forms

• catch-22

Etymology

Coined by American writer Joseph Heller in 1961 in his novel Catch-22, in which the main character feigns madness in order to avoid dangerous combat missions, but his desire to avoid them is taken to prove his sanity.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌkætʃ ˌtwɛnti ˈtuː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

Catch-22 (plural Catch-22s)

1. (idiomatic) A difficult situation from which there is no escape because it involves mutually conflicting or dependent conditions.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dilemma

   For us it’s been a real Catch-22: when we have the time to take a vacation, we don’t have enough money, and when we have enough money, we don’t have the time.

   • 1988, E[dward] J[ames] Moran Campbell, Not Always on the Level, [London]: British Medical Journal, →ISBN, page 194:

     Herein lies my personal “Catch 22”; the choice between three hours sleep and some discomfort or six hours sleep and real pain. Usually I choose the lesser evil of insomnia because in addition to the pain at 6am, I am incapacitated by the hangover from the sedative.

   • 2008, Zev Handel, “What is Sino-Tibetan? Snapshot of a Field and a Language Family in Flux”, in Language and Linguistics Compass, volume 2, number 3, →DOI, pages 422-441:

     Overall, the subgrouping issue in S[ino-]T[ibetan] studies is plagued by a familiar Catch-22. Until a more complete reconstruction of P[roto-]S[ino-]T[ibetan] exists, it is difficult to accurately identify shared innovations. Yet, without a clear subgrouping, it is difficult to properly weight and evaluate data from the daughter languages in order to refine PST reconstructions.

   • 2026 June 13, Ben Casselman, “Wages Are Falling. Wealth Is Surging. No Wonder Americans Are Unhappy.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     That can make A.I. feel like something of a Catch-22 for workers: If the technology succeeds in reshaping the economy, they could lose their jobs. If it fails to live up to the hype, their retirement savings could evaporate.

Translations

difficult situation

• Bulgarian: Параграф 22 m (Paragraf 22), параграф 22 m (paragraf 22)
• Czech: Hlava 22, Hlava XXII
• Esperanto: dilemo
• German: Zwickmühle (de) f, Dilemma (de) n, Teufelskreis (de) m, Sackgasse (de) f, ausweglose Situation f
• Hungarian: a 22-es csapdája, csapdahelyzet (hu), kilátástalan​/​megoldhatatlan helyzet
• Polish: Paragraf 22, paradoks literacki, błędne koło (pl)
• Portuguese: beco sem saída (pt)
• Spanish: problema circular m
• Swedish: moment 22 (sv) n
• Turkish: kısırdöngü

See also

• CATCH 22 syndrome
• deadlock
• dilemma