Crazy idioms

Maybe I’ve lost my marbles, but I think it’s nuts that I say so many things without thinking about how those phrases came to be. In this post, I’ll be looking into theories about how some idioms began. Idioms about being crazy.

Before I begin, I want to mention that these idioms began as negative sayings. They are expressions about a person losing their sanity. However, I believe that these days the idioms I’m going to explain in this post should be used in a fun and loving way between family and friends. They should never be used to hurt or insult. Today, I’ll be explaining three of my favourite idioms about craziness. Okay, let’s begin.

NUTTY

As many of you are aware, ‘nuts’ isn’t reserved for craziness. The word ‘nut’ has had MANY changes in its alternative meanings (besides the actual food, that is) through the years. The Oxford Dictionary lists definitions of ‘nuts’ that range from instruments to metals to people.

Eventually, the word ‘nut’ changed to mean ‘head.’ The reason for this change is uncertain but there are a few theories. The first is that brains are inside the skull and considered more important than the skull itself. Brains were compared to how the edible part of a nut is inside a shell. The second theory is that both nuts and heads are hard. The third theory is that some people believed that nuts had a similar shape to a human head.

This idiom came around in the mid-19^th century. The phrase ‘off your head’ was popular at the time. As ‘nut’ began to mean ‘head’ the phrase changed into the idiom we know today. As you might expect there are many variations including simply calling someone ‘nuts’ or ‘nutty.’

FRUITCAKE

The idiom ‘nutty as a fruitcake’ has a simple origin. ‘Nutty as a fruitcake’ made its first appearance in the 1900s. Because literal fruitcakes have nuts in them, they became an extension of the ‘nuts’ or ‘nutty’ idiom. This seems obvious looking back since ‘nutty’ is the first word in this crazy idiom.

MARBLES

The phrase ‘Lost your marbles’ is from the 18^th century. Marbles was a popular game at the time and a child who lost them would be understandably upset. In one version of this game, the winners would keep the marbles used by the losing players. Losing marbles in this way sounds all the more upsetting than simply misplacing one’s playthings.

If a child loses a toy, they become upset and may frantically search for it.  People also used to call their things ‘marbles’ as a perversion of the French word ‘meubles.’ I don’t know about you, but I get pretty upset when my stuff goes missing, especially if it’s something I need, or the item is important to me. So, the original meaning of the phrase ‘lost your marbles’ was to get upset or angry. Near the end of the 18^th century, it began to transition into meaning ‘crazy.’

Since a person’s stuff can be important to them, and brains are important, ‘marbles’ eventually came to mean a mind or brain. A comparison may have been made between someone getting upset over a lost item (child or otherwise) and an insane person. Thus ‘lost your marbles’ started to mean ‘lost your mind.’

MY THOUGHTS

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling a bit out of my mind lately. (Guess why). I found that my favourite way of expressing this is to say, “I’ve lost my marbles!” I’m not sure why, but it makes me laugh. That’s the main reason I chose this topic. I figured everyone needed something fun and interesting to think about right now. What is your favourite crazy idiom? Let me know in the comments!

CONCLUSION

Who knew it took so much to be called crazy? Maybe I’m off my nut, but it seems to me that we should think about where our words come from now and then. It’s interesting to peek at the way language changes over time. It’s also important to pay attention to our words. We often can’t take them back. So, go ahead and use these crazy idioms but use them with care.