Where did the phrase going to hell in a hand basket or hand bag come from?

Answer 1

where did hell in a hand bag come from? Clues to the origin of "going to hell in a handbasket," meaning "deteriorating rapidly or utterly," are, unfortunately, scarce as hens' teeth. The eminent slang historian Eric Partridge, in his "Dictionary of Catchphrases," dates the term to the early 1920's. Christine Ammer, in her "Have A Nice Day -- No Problem," a dictionary of cliches, agrees that the phrase probably dates to the early 20th century, and notes that the alliteration of "hell" and "handbasket" probably contributed to the popularity of the saying. Ms. Ammer goes a bit further and ventures that, since handbaskets are "light and easily conveyed," the term "means going to hell easily and rapidly." That seems a bit of a stretch to me, but I do think the addition of "in a handbasket" (or "in a bucket," as one variant puts it) does sound more dire and hopeless than simply "going to hell."

The expression to hell meaning 'to ruin or destruction; to an unfortunate state of affairs' is found since the early nineteenth century. The early examples are quite natural sounding today: "There's a thousand dollars gone to hell," wrote someone in 1827. ("Go to hell!" used as an exclamation is older, and is not often found in fancier forms.)

Simple but pungent expressions like this often develop elaborated variants. For example, the imprecation "kiss my ass!" can be expanded (from one direction) into "kiss my royal Irish ass!" or (from another) into "kiss my ass in Macy's window!" Similarly, the expression "go to hell" developed a number of variants describing the conveyance for reaching Pluto's realm, and these conveyances don't necessarily make sense. Carl Sandburg, writing about the 1890s, comments that "The first time I heard about a man 'going to hell in a hanging basket' I did a lot of wondering what a hanging basket is like." Whatever a "hanging basket" is, it gives us the alliteration, like such other common examples as "going to hell in a hack [i.e. a taxicab]," "handcart," and our "handbasket." Non-alliterating versions include "in a wheelbarrow," "on a poker," "in a bucket" ("But at least I'm enjoying the ride," as The Grateful Dead say), and "in a basket."

http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/1/messages/2879.html

******** The phrase is American and dates to the Civil War. See it in House Documents of 1866-1867, page 208 . http://books.Google.com/books?id=YJYFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA208&dq=%22hell+in+a+hand%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=1760&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=1880&as_brr=1 ****

This is a weird one. It's a fairly common American expression, known for much of the twentieth century. But it's one about which almost no information exists, at least in the two dozen or so reference books I've consulted. William and Mary Morris, in their Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, confess to the same difficulty. A handbasket is just a basket to be carried in the hand (my thanks to the Oxford English Dictionary for that gem of definition). The Dictionary of American Regional English records to go to heaven in a handbasket rather earlier than the alternative, which doesn't appear in print until the 1940s (Walt Quader tells me that Burton Stevenson included a citation in his Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims and Familiar Phrases from Bayard Kendrick's The Odor of Violets, published in 1941). But DARE quotes a related expression from 1714: "A committee brought in something about Piscataqua. Govr said he would give his head in a Handbasket as soon as he would pass it", which suggests that it, or at least phrases like it, have been around in the spoken language for a long time. For example, there's an even older expression, to go to heaven in a wheelbarrow, recorded as early as 1629, which also meant "to go to hell". I can only assume that the alliteration of the hs has had a lot to do with the success of the various phrases, and that perhaps handbasket suggests something easily and speedily done.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-goi1.htm

To hell in a handbasket

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Going to Hell in a handbasket is a way of saying something or a situation is quickly taking a turn for the worse without effort or with great haste.

This term dates back to at least 1941, but its origins, albeit scarce in documentation, date back even further to 1913 with the term to heaven in a handbasket or to heaven in a wheelbarrow. Even more abstract references date back to 1714 with a text reading, " Govr said he would give his head in a Handbasket as soon as he would pass it." This seems to suggest that the term in one form or another has been around for quite some time.

http://www.search.com/reference/To_hell_in_a_handbasket

''Going to hell in a handbasket'' is an informal expression that means ''quickly and surely heading toward deterioration or ruin,'' as in ''He thought the country was going to hell in a handbasket when they started playing Baseball at night.'' It is most likely that the phrase stems from the function of a handbasket. Though the word ''handbasket'' is now seldom used independently of the phrase in question, it originally referred to a small portable basket, much like the kind you find stacked at the entrances to most of today's supermarkets. Small enough to be carried in one hand, the handbasket came to be associated with accomplishing something with ease and speed. A similar association explains the less popular ''going to hell in a handbag,'' which carries the same meaning as the ''handbasket'' form of the expression. Our earliest written example of ''going to hell in a handbasket" 'dates back to 1949. Ironically, this first recorded usage is predated by the phrase ''go to heaven in a handbasket,'' recorded in the Dictionary of American Regional English. The ''heaven'' usage appears as a listing in a glossary and refers to the holding of an ecclesiastical office that requires little or no work. This use, though obviously very different from today's ''going to hell in a handbasket,'' clearly illustrates the early association of handbaskets with ease.

It is important to keep in mind that all of the above expressions owe much to the popularity of alliteration. Words that begin with the same sound are often yoked together, even when meaning alone doesn't fully justify the grouping (case in point: ''bigger than a bread box''). ''Handbasket'' appeared in phrases with other ''h'' words as far back as the 18th century. A diary entry from 1714 tells the story of a statesman who, when asked to approve a proposal, refused vehemently by saying that he would rather ''give his head in a handbasket.'' It is likely that ''going to hell in a handbasket'' has been in use much longer than our written evidence indicates. Informal expressions like this one often exist in speech for decades before they are ever written down. As a result, our examples of earliest recorded usage don't always provide enough information to fully explain how certain phrases were originally formed and used. We must sometimes be satisfied with the bits and pieces we do have and remind ourselves that if all English expressions were completely transparent, the language wouldn't be nearly as fascinating.

(Merriam-Webster Editorial Department )

Clues to the origin of "going to hell in a handbasket," meaning "deteriorating rapidly or utterly," are, unfortunately, scarce as hens' teeth. The eminent slang historian Eric Partridge, in his "Dictionary of Catchphrases," dates the term to the early 1920s. Christine Ammer, in her "Have a Nice Day -- No Problem," a dictionary of cliches, agrees that the phrase probably dates to the early 20th century, and notes that the alliteration of "hell" and "handbasket" probably contributed to the popularity of the saying. Ms. Ammer goes a bit further and ventures that, since handbaskets are "light and easily conveyed," the term "means going to hell easily and rapidly." That seems a bit of a stretch to me, but I do think the addition of "in a handbasket" (or "in a bucket," as one variant puts it) does sound more dire and hopeless than simply "going to hell.