Lost His Marbles Etymology

From the mid 19th century marbles was also used to mean personal effects goods or more generally stuff.

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. The underlying reference is apparently to the children s game played with multicoloured glass balls. This derived from the french word meubles which means furniture. Queeg restlessly jiggling a set of metal balls when under stress in court.

Marbles as a term for a person s mental faculties probably originated as early 20th century american slang. To lose one s marbles is to lose one s mind. What s the origin of the phrase lose your marbles. 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.

Its origin probably lies with the childrens game. To lose one s marbles is to go mad.