"Mad as a hatter" is a colloquial English phrase used in conversation to suggest (lightheartedly) that a person is suffering from insanity. The etymology of the phrase is uncertain, with explanations both connected and unconnected to the trade of hat-making. The earliest known appearance of the phrase in print is in an 1829 issue of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , predating the Hatter from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by several decades.
There are many theories about the possible origin of the saying:
Boston Corbett, who shot Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth, spent his early life as a hat maker. 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 his unit had Booth surrounded in a barn in Virginia, and Sergeant Corbett shot Booth instead of taking him alive. After investigation, Sergeant Corbett was forgiven for his disobedience, but left the Army and went back to hat making. After a few years, Corbett suffered further mental illness, and he was thrown into an insane asylum. Corbett managed to escape, and he was never seen again. [5]
In a section of Volume 25 of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , headed Noctes Ambrocianæ. No. XLIV, 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 (aside to SHEPHERD.): He's raving.
SHEPHERD (to TICKLER.): Dementit.ODOHERTY (to both.): Mad as a hatter. Hand me a segar. [6] [7] [8]
Canadian author Thomas 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." [6] [9]
The dictionary definition of mad as a hatter at Wiktionary
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