This English idiom is very well known although is not used in day-to-day life. This recognition is perhaps down to Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice in Wonderland in which we find a character with the name The Mad Hatter.
Meaning
The expression is used to express that someone is mad. Generally speaking it is used to denote the extreme of madness and that someone is not just mad but is in fact verging on craziness.
Etymology
The earliest printed usage of the phrase can be found in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine from the year 1829. It can be found in a conversation and reads;
TICKLER (aside to SHEPHERD.): He’s raving.
SHEPHERD (to TICKLER.): Dementit.
ODOHERTY (to both.): Mad as a hatter. Hand me a segar.
After this the expression quickly gained popularity and can be found in a number of works; mainly from British writers and novelists. It is suggested that the idea behind the expression is the fact that in the past hats were manufactured using mercury which was a material which caused damage to the nervous system and thus those who made hats developed a reaction to this and acted as though they were “mad.”
Example
The most famous example of this expression is found in Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice in Wonderland. One of the main characters is named The Mad Hatter and thus the phrase is used frequently throughout. An example of this can be found in the following citation; “in that direction,’ the Cat said, ‘lives a hatter: and in that direction, lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”
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This is a commonly used figurative English expression. The expression can be found both as “to take with a pinch of salt” and “to take with a grain of salt.” The latter is more commonly heard in the United States whilst the former is the norm in the British context.
Meaning
The expression is used to denote the idea of taking a statement or story with a high degree of caution. It suggests that whilst one should accept the statement it is perhaps not fully true and thus there is a degree of scepticism present.
Etymology
It is widely accepted that the idea behind the idiom comes from the fact that adding salt to food makes it easier to swallow. Therefore taking a statement with a pinch of salt will dilute or lessen any negative or harmful effects which it may have.
The expression “a grain of salt” can be dated back to 1647 in John Trapp’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments which reads “this is to be taken with a grain of salt.” The version more commonly used in Britain is much more modern and the first recorded usage dates to the year 1948 in F. R. Cowell’s Cicero & the Roman Republic. The quote reads “amore critical spirit slowly developed, so that Cicero and his friends took more than the proverbial pinch of salt before swallowing everything written by these earlier authors.”
Example
An example of this expression can be found in a quote from American musician Stefano Langone. The citation reads “the first thing you have to do is take everything with a grain of salt. You know, you’ve gotta just look at the goal, focus on what you gotta do and take one step at a time as a whole, as every performance being that’s it, that’s one objective, and let’s just move forward and work on that.”
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This is an English idiom which is frequently used. It is used in a metaphorical sense and does not relate either to haystacks or to needles.
Meaning
The expression is used to denote that something is extremely difficult to find. In fact, it suggests that something is nearly, if not completely, impossible to find.
Etymology
It is suggested that this phrase was first used in a more literal sense among farmers when they lost things in their haystacks. The first recorded usage dates to the year 1834 and can be found in The Complete Works of Washington Irving. The citation reads “if I want to find any particular article, it is, in the language of an humble but expressive saying, — looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Although this is the first recorded usage it is widely accepted that the phrase was used in spoken language prior to this and was fairly well-established by 1834. Many people attest to the fact that the expression actually dates to the early 1600’s although there is no concrete evidence to support this.
Example
An example of the usage of this expression can be found in a quote from Jared Sandberg. He is quoted as having said “one of the Internet’s strengths is its ability to help consumers find the right needle in a digital haystack of data.”
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This is an English expression which is very commonly used in both written and spoken language. The verb “rack” is used in some other English expressions such as “to be racked with guilt” and can be spelt both as “rack” and “wrack.”
Meaning
The expression is used in order to denote that someone is trying really hard in order to either remember or to understand something. The verb “rack” is used in a figurative sense rather than the literal sense.
Etymology
The use of the word “rack” dates back to the Medieval Times when a “rack” was used as a device for torture. This noun then became the verb “to rack” meaning “to cause pain or anguish” due to the fact that the device was used to decapitate humans. This verb was first used by Shakespeare in 1602 in his play Twelfth Night which reads “how haue the houres rack’d, and tortur’d me, Since I haue lost thee?”
It was not until the 1680’s that this verb was first used in relation to brains. This was in William Beveridge’s Sermons and reads “they rack their brains… they hazard their lives for it.”
Example
An example of this expression in use can be found in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The quote reads “rack your brains, that should only take a couple of seconds.”
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