![]() It is believed that the effects of his early life job affected his decision-making for his future. According to A Dictionary of Common Fallacies (1980), "'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'."īoston Corbett, who shot Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth, spent his early life as a hat maker. Lexicographers William and Mary Morris in Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins (1977) favour this derivation because "mad as a hatter" was known before hat making was a recognized trade. An adaptation of the Old English word atter meaning "poison", and closely related to the word adder for the venomous crossed viper.Although this was presaged by political and religious radicalism, and was followed by a long married life. 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. ![]() 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."
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