the.com/hamper
A basket whose only job is to hide the evidence of your humanity.
means To hamper is to hinder or impede someone's movement or progress; as a noun, it's a large basket, especially one for laundry or for carrying food.
from Two separate words wearing the same coat. The basket comes from Old French 'hanapier,' a case for holding a 'hanap' (a goblet or drinking cup) — a vessel for carrying precious things, later demoted to holding dirty socks. The verb 'to hamper,' meaning to obstruct, is a murkier creature of uncertain Middle English origin, possibly related to words meaning 'to mangle' or 'to fetter,' and likely never had anything to do with baskets at all — they just collided in spelling.
- double life
- Means both a gift basket and a laundry bin
- victorian roots
- Fortnum & Mason sold hampers to traveling aristocrats
- the verb
- To hamper means to obstruct, unrelated origin
- woven design
- Wicker breathes, slowing the mildew on damp clothes
- prison slang
- Once meant a basket carried to condemned prisoners