Glossary
Wonderland words and hatter's terms, in plain language.
10/6
Ten shillings and sixpence — a half-guinea, the price on the paper tag in the Hatter’s hatband (“In this style 10/6”) in Tenniel’s illustration. Later the date of Mad Hatter Day (October 6).
Adder
A venomous snake; Old English atter meant poison. One theory traces “mad as a hatter” to “mad as an atter” — as venomous as a viper. Reported, not proven.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll’s 1865 book; home of the Hatter (Chapters VI, VII, XI).
Atter
Old English for poison or venom; see Adder.
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
The Tory monthly whose 1829 Noctes Ambrosianae contains the earliest known printed “mad as a hatter.”
Bread-and-butter
The Hatter’s perpetual snack — carried to the trial, clutched by Hatta at the fight. The food of the interrupted meal.
Carroting
The felt-making process in which fur was treated with mercuric nitrate, roughening the fibers so they would mat. The source of the hatters’ mercury exposure.
Cheshire Cat
The grinning cat of Chapter VI who diagnoses the Hatter and the March Hare: “they’re both mad.”
Clean cup
The March Hare’s cry — “Clean cup! clean cup! Move down!” — as the tea-party perpetually shifts seats, because the cups are never washed.
Danbury shakes
The local name in Danbury, Connecticut — America’s hat-making capital — for the tremors of chronic mercury poisoning among hatters.
Dormouse
The sleeper at the tea-party; storyteller of Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie; eventual occupant of a teapot.
Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie
The three little sisters in the Dormouse’s story — Carroll’s cipher for Lorina Charlotte, Alice, and Edith Liddell.
Erethism
Chronic mercury poisoning: tremors, shyness, irritability, mood swings, confusion. The medical reality behind “mad as a hatter.”
Felt
Matted fur fabric — the hatter’s raw material, made with mercury in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Great Exhibition (1851)
The London world’s fair where Theophilus Carter exhibited his alarm-clock bed.
Haigha
The White King’s messenger in Through the Looking-Glass — the March Hare’s mirror-twin (“hare” in Looking-Glass dress).
Hatta
The Hatter’s name in Through the Looking-Glass (Chapter VII) — one of the White King’s messengers, just out of prison, still holding his tea.
Knave of Hearts
The defendant at whose trial the Hatter is the first witness (Chapter XI).
Looking-Glass
Short for Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) — the chessboard sequel, home of Hatta.
Mad as a hatter
Victorian slang for crazy — in print by 1829, decades before Carroll; possibly from mercury-poisoned hatters, possibly from older wordplay. The evidence is honestly mixed.
Mad as a March hare
Proverb recorded by the 1500s, from the spring frenzy of hares; Carroll cast the Hare, he didn’t invent him.
Mad Hatter Day
October 6 (10/6), celebrated since 1986 in honor of the hat tag.
March Hare
The Hatter’s co-host — madder, louder, and quicker to shout than the Hatter; Tenniel draws him with straw in his hair, the old visual shorthand for lunacy.
Mercury (quicksilver)
The metal whose nitrate poisoned generations of hatters; also the Roman messenger-god, which is why the planet and the metal share the name.
Mercuric nitrate
The mercury compound used in carroting felt — the specific poison of the trade.
Move down
What the tea-party does perpetually — shifting round the table to find a clean cup that doesn’t exist.
“Murdering the time”
The Queen’s accusation against the Hatter’s singing — a pun on musical time and Time the person; the crime that froze him at six o’clock.
“No room! No room!”
The tea-party’s greeting to Alice — shouted by all three at once, and untrue.
Pocket watch
The Hatter’s watch, which tells the day of the month but never the hour — a timepiece exiled from time.
Price tag
The paper in the hatband: “In this style 10/6.” A shop tag turned character trait.
Queen of Hearts
The monarch who sentenced the Hatter for murdering the time; later his judge-adjacent at the trial.
Raven
Half of the famous riddle. Carroll’s belated answer: it “can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat.”
Six o’clock
Teatime, forever — the hour the Hatter has been stuck at since his quarrel with Time.
Tenniel, John
(1820–1914) The illustrator of the 1865 Alice; inventor of the visual Hatter — the hat, the tag, the table.
Teapot
The table’s shelter and punchline — the Dormouse’s eventual destination.
“The best butter”
The March Hare’s meek defense of the watch-buttering: “It was the best butter.”
Theophilus Carter
Oxford furniture dealer and inventor, locally nicknamed “the Mad Hatter” — the unsubstantiated legend says Tenniel drew him. No evidence in Carroll’s papers.
Top hat
The tall hat of the Victorian gentleman — and the Hatter’s name, trade, and identity.
Treacle
The food of the well-dwelling sisters — and a real thing: chalybeate “treacle wells” at Binsey, near Oxford.
“Twinkle, twinkle, little bat”
The Hatter’s song — the performance that got him sentenced. A parody of “Twinkle, twinkle, little star.”
Unbirthday
Not Carroll’s word. “A Very Merry Unbirthday” is from Disney’s 1951 film — the song, not the book. This site labels its provenance honestly wherever it appears.
Writing-desk
The other half of the riddle — like a raven, it is “nevar put with the wrong end in front” (Carroll’s 1896 answer, spelling restored).