Catch-22

catch-22 English 2015 November 11 + (logic) Alternative forms en catch-22 Etymology en Q208101 1961 1 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.1961 Joseph Heller Catch-22 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. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to. Pronunciation en /ˌkætʃ ˌtwɛnti ˈtuː/ en LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Catch-22.wav Southern England Noun Catch-22 en idiomatic A difficult situation from which there is no escape because it involves mutually conflicting or dependent conditions. en Thesaurus:dilemma en 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. en 1988 Moran Campbell E[dward] J[ames] Moran Campbell Not Always on the Level [London] British Medical Journal 0727901842 194 https://archive.org/details/notalwaysonlevel0000camp/page/194/mode/2up?q=Catch 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. en 2008 Zev Handel What is Sino-Tibetan? Snapshot of a Field and a Language Family in Flux Language and Linguistics Compass 2 3 422-441 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-818X.2008.00061.x Overall, the subgrouping issue in Sgray [ino-]Tgray [ibetan] studies is plagued by a familiar Catch-22. Until a more complete reconstruction of Pgray [roto-]Sgray [ino-]Tgray [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. en-US Ben Casselman Wages Are Falling. Wealth Is Surging. No Wonder Americans Are Unhappy. The New York Times 2026-06-13 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/13/business/economy-trillionaire-wealth-wages.html 0362-4331 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. en 16 September 2026 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm17jz89rxevo Mark Savage BBC In his statement, he said he wanted to continue the tour, to avoid letting down fans and the crew who rely on his concerts to make a living.If he had threatened to pull the plug on the shows, he could have framed it as a protest for free speech - although that would still inevitably have been interpreted as an endorsement of Macklemore's statements.So, Sheeran stumbled into a Catch 22 situation. He was damned either way. Translations difficult situation Bulgarian: bg Параграф 22 m, bg параграф 22 m Czech: cs Hlava 22, cs Hlava XXII Esperanto: eo dilemo German: de Zwickmühle f, de Dilemma n, de Teufelskreis m, de Sackgasse f, de ausweglose Situation f Hungarian: hu a 22-es csapdája, hu csapdahelyzet, hu kilátástalan​/​megoldhatatlan helyzet Polish: pl Paragraf 22, pl paradoks literacki, pl błędne koło Portuguese: pt beco sem saída Spanish: es problema circular m Swedish: sv moment 22 n Turkish: tr kısırdöngü See also en CATCH 22 syndrome deadlock dilemma References en Paradoxes World War II en terms derived from fiction