Mad as a Hatter

Your Native English Teacher's Idiom of the Week:


In the middle of the 18th century hat makers began using mercury in a solution to create felt for hats. This solution and the vapors were highly toxic, leading to symptoms such as tremors, insomnia, dementia, and even hallucinations. Mercury poisoning.

The toxic chemicals hat makers used really did cause them to go insane, and so the expression 'mad as a hatter' was born.

Famously, Lewis Carroll's character 'Mad Hatter' in his book 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', is based on this.

More recently, the word 'mad' has also emerged into the English language to mean 'angry' as well as 'crazy'.



As mad as a hatter

This expression means that someone is crazy, nuts, wacko, insane, loonie, crackers...I think you get the picture.

That old man wanders up and down this street all day, mumbling to himself about the end of the world. He is as mad as a hatter.


Click this link to find out what idioms are: Native English Teacher