Lost His Marbles Etymology

To lose one s marbles is to go mad.

Lost his marbles etymology.

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. Queeg restlessly jiggling a set of metal balls when under stress in court. 1998 spectator at least that is how i recall the event but i am losing my marbles. To lose one s marbles is to lose one s mind.

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. Who can mistake the meaning of the boy when he had lost his marbles playing keeps. From the mid 19th century marbles was also used to mean personal effects goods or more generally stuff. The underlying reference is apparently to the children s game played with multicoloured glass balls.

What s the origin of the phrase lose your marbles. This derived from the french word meubles which means furniture.