"Mad as a hatter" is a colloquial English phrase used in conversation to suggest that a person is suffering from insanity. It is believed to emanate from Luton, Bedfordshire, in eastern England, where men in the area worked predominantly in the hattery business, which used mercury in the hat making process. The accumulation of mercury in the body causes symptoms similar to madness. The earliest known appearance of the phrase in print is in an 1829 issue of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.
Etymology
The origin of the saying may derive from:
Mercury poisoning of hat-makers – A popular explanation of the phrase suggests that it was connected to mercury poisoning or Korsakoff's syndrome experienced by hat-makers as a result of the long-term use of mercury products in the hat-making trade. In 18th and 19th century England mercury was used in the production of felt, which was used in the manufacturing of hats common of the time. A late 19th-century example of the effect occurred with hatters in Danbury, Connecticut who developed a condition known locally as the Danbury Shakes. The condition was characterized by slurred speech, tremors, stumbling, and, in extreme cases, hallucinations.
An incidence of nominalization of the verb hatter, which means "To harass; to weary; to wear out with fatigue." according to Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language published in 1755. In the text he cites a passage from the work of John Dryden as an example of usage: "He's hatter'd out with pennance."
Roger Crab, a 17th-century hermit who, after working for a short time as a hatter, gave all his goods to the poor and wore homemade sackcloth clothes. Although this was presaged by political and religious radicalism, and was followed by a long married life.
An adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon word :wiktionary:atter#English|atter meaning poison, closely related to the wordadder for the poisonous Crossed Viper. Lexicographers William and Mary Morris in Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins favour this derivation because "mad as a hatter" was known before hat making was a recognized trade. According to A Dictionary of Common Fallacies, "'mad' meant 'venomous' and 'hatter' is a corruption of 'adder', or viper, so that the phrase 'mad as an atter' originally meant 'as venomous as a viper'."
Historical significance: Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, and Booth was shot by Boston Corbett. Corbett spent his early life as a hat maker, and it is believed that the effects of his early life job affected his decision-making for his future. He was considered "mad as a hatter" for going against orders when he had Booth cornered in a barn in Virginia, and shooting Booth instead of taking him alive. After investigation, Corbett was forgiven for his disobedience, but left the army and went back to hat making. After a few years, Corbett was even more mad than people had once thought, and he was thrown into an insane asylum. Corbett managed to escape, and he was never seen again.
Early uses
In a section of the January–June 1829 issue of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, headed Noctes Ambrocianæ. No. XL1V, there is a conversation between a group of fictional characters:
NORTH: Many years – I was Sultan of Bello for a long period, until dethroned by an act of the grossest injustice; but I intend to expose the traitorous conspirators to the indignation of an outraged world. TICKLER : He's raving. SHEPHERD : Dementit. ODOHERTY : Mad as a hatter. Hand me a segar.
Canadian authorThomas Chandler Haliburton used the phrase twice in his 1835 book The clockmaker; or the sayings and doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville: "And with that he turned right round, and sat down to his map and never said another word, lookin' as mad as a hatter the whole blessed time" and "Father he larfed out like any thing; I thought he would never stop – and sister Sall got right up and walked out of the room, as mad as a hatter. Says she, Sam, I do believe you are a born fool, I vow."
