Though not nearly as entertaining as Brenda, "The Phrase Finder" helped me paraphrase one of the facts my mom had for me today. In the future I will try to capture facts in her words. Until then...
"Did you know..."
Mercury used to be used in the making of hats. This was known to have affected the nervous systems of hatters, causing them to tremble and appear insane. The use of mercury compounds in 19th century hat making and the resulting effects are well-established - mercury poisoning is still known today as 'Mad Hatter's disease'. That could be enough to convince us that this is the source of the phrase. The circumstantial evidence is rather against the millinery origin though and, beyond the fact that hatters often suffered trembling fits, there's little to link hat making to the coining of 'as mad as a hatter'.
No comments:
Post a Comment