![]() That would account for the 1898 example and it’s hardly a step from there to the wider meaning of mad - to do something senseless or stupid. To play was always to run the risk of losing all one’s marbles and the result might easily be anger, frustration, and despair. The origin must surely come from the boys’ game of marbles, which was very common at the time. It was printed in the Lima News of Ohio in July 1898: “He picked up the Right Honorable Mr Hughes on a technicality, and although that gentleman is reverential in appearance as Father Abraham and as patient as Job, he had, to use an expression of the street, lost his ‘marbles’ most beautifully and stomped on the irascible Harmon, very much à la Bull in the china shop.” But in an earlier appearance, the writer used it to mean angry, not insane ( mad, that is, in the common US sense rather than the British one). That certainly sounds like the modern meaning of marbles, which as you say refers to one’s sanity. and the smoke-holder like a man who is shy some of his marbles.” ![]() The earliest example given in the standard references is from It’s Up to You A Story of Domestic Bliss, by George V Hobart, dated 1902: “I see-sawed back and forth between Clara J. It is, as it happens, pretty much contemporary with the play. To lose one’s marbles is equally American and the same comment applies. Which clangs discordantly on my British ear, since lost them good is an Americanism, not natively known this side of the big water, and therefore an expression that the Scottish Barrie could not have used. Peter: Ha ha ha! He really did lose his marbles, didn’t he? Might you have been confused by Hook, the film that was made from it in 1991? That includes the exchange: Is this the origin?Ī There’s no mention of marbles in J M Barrie’s original 1904 play, Peter Pan. 'There goes a man who doesn't have all his marbles.Q From Mike Pataky: Can you tell me the origin of the expression, He has lost his marbles, meaning gone mad or lost his reason or done something really stupid? Being a Londoner myself, I suspected it might be a Cockney expression but I recently heard it in Peter Pan where the uncle (who is not quite ‘compos mentis’) is said to have found his lost marbles. "Marbles, doesn't have all his (verb phrase), mentally deficient. W Jones as Gallia's candidate, but got his marbles mixed and did as much for the institution of which he is the noted head as he did for his candidate."īy 1927, an edition of American Speech defined the term unambiguously: Davis, of Rio Grande college, was selected to present J. This uage begam in the us in the late 19th century and the Ohio newspaper The Portsmouth Times, reported a story in April 1898 that used marbles that way: It's more likely that 'marbles' was coined as a slang term meaning 'wits/common sense' for no particular reason. Again, there's no evidence to support this idea. The supposition is that the expression derives from the loss of the artworks by the Greeks, or their subsequent loss at sea when the ship that was transporting them sank - although they were later recovered. It has been suggested that the expression derives from the Elgin Marbles - the collection of sculptures, some from the Parthenon Frieze, which were taken from Athens by Lord Elgin in 1806. 'Marbles' also meant testicles and has been used that way since at least the mid 19th century.ĭespite these many meanings, there doesn't seem to be any reason to connect any of them to the 'losing one's mind' meaning. ![]() These mean 'to carry off the honours or prizes' and 'to withdraw from activity or game and cause it to cease' (like the UK variant 'take one's ball home'). From the 1920s onward two US expressions have become established - 'to pick up the marbles' and 'to pick up one's marbles'. The faster you are, the more time you get to carry over into the next stage. ![]() There are six mazes you need to manoeuvre your way around each course before you run out of time. This derives from the French word 'meubles', which means 'furniture'. The aim of Marble Madness is to manipulate the marble on the screen from your 3D perspective. From the mid 19th century 'marbles' was also used to mean 'personal effects', 'goods', or more generally 'stuff'. Of course, marbles are the little clay or glass balls that children use to play the eponymous game. The word 'marbles' has had many meanings. That's worth investigation at least, so let's have a go. Perhaps though 'marbles' meant 'mind' or 'wits' before 'lose one's marbles' was coined. In those later expressions the literal meaning of 'load', 'light' etc don't have any special significance - the point is that the person in question has, as in another earlier variant, 'a bit missing'. This late 19th century American meaning has now been superseded by the many variants of 'one brick short of a load', 'the light's on but there's no one at home' etc. To 'lose one's marbles' is to lose one's mind. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |