Lost His Marbles Etymology

In the 1954 film the caine mutiny humphrey bogart linked insanity with marbles when he showed his character the demented lt.

Lost his marbles etymology. What s the origin of the phrase lose your marbles. The underlying reference is apparently to the children s game played with multicoloured glass balls. Meaning mental faculties common sense as in to lose or not have all one s marbles is by 1927 american english slang perhaps oed from earlier slang marbles furniture personal effects the goods 1864 hotten a corrupt translation of french meubles plural furniture see furniture. To lose one s marbles is to lose one s mind.

Queeg restlessly jiggling a set of metal balls when under stress in court. You needn t say nothing no more to me about no marbles this is most probably why the plural marbles came to be figuratively used to mean mental faculties common sense in the phrases to lose one s marbles to have or not have all one s marbles and variants. Marbles as a term for a person s mental faculties probably originated as early 20th century american slang. This derived from the french word meubles which means furniture.

From the mid 19th century marbles was also used to mean personal effects goods or more generally stuff. To lose one s marbles is to go mad.