Il Cappellaio Matto

Yesterday I read in a novel by Philip K. Dick that English hatters, during the 19th century, used to utilize mercury to process felt hats, and this could cause an intoxication that led to brain damage, so, very often, they went mad.
Thus came the expression "as mad as a hatter".
I Googled (not sure) it, and it appears to be true.
That made me think about "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". There's "the Hatter" in this book, who is clearly totally nuts. His name, in Italian, is translated as "Il Cappellaio Matto", "the Mad Hatter", and that's maybe because we, usually, don't say "matto come un cappellaio".
Instead of that, very often, we say "matto come un cavallo", literally "as mad as a horse". Horses seem less crazy than humans to me, but, anyway, that's a very common idiom.
Another way to say that is "fuori" (out). So we say "quello è fuori", literally: "that one is out".
There's a variation on the theme which I find very funny, it's "fuori come un balcone" ("as out as a balcony", because balconies are known to never be inside).
So, "quel tizio è proprio fuori come un balcone" may be a good non-literal translation for "that bloke is really mad as a hatter".
We also say "matto da legare" ( "mad to be tied"), and here, if I am not wrong, English and Italian finally agree, for this is an English expression too. (The English expression is "fit to be tied", which means angry/agitated, not insane.)
However, they say Philip Dick was mad to be tied, but that's ok for me, because he was pure genius, and, without being a genius, I'm a bit "fuori", too.
In the novel I'm reading (re-reading, actually), "The Divine Invasion", published in 1981, there's an almost omniscent AI controlling the world, whose name is "big noodle".
I can't avoid noticing a strict assonance with the name of a famous serch engine... (HAHAHAH!)
I wonder what Dick would think of that. :)

Here's a list of Italian Idioms:
http://www.pimsleurapproach.com/resources/italian/articles/italian-idioms/

Awesome entry Daniele! I read this earlier and now my friend and I are saying "Mad like a horse" as an 'in-joke' around our other co-workers. Thanks for the amusement!

Erin

Il Cappellaio Matto

Yesterday I read in a novel by Philip K. Dick that English hatters, during the 19th century, used to utilize mercury to process felt hats, and this could cause an intoxication that led to brain damage, so, very often, they grew mad.
Thus came the expression "as mad as a hatter".
I googled it, and it appears to be true.
That made my think about "Alice's adventures in Wonderland". There's "the Hatter" in this book, who is clearly totally nuts. His name, in Italian, is translated with "Il Cappellaio Matto", "the Mad Hatter", and that's maybe because we, usually, don't say "matto come un cappellaio".
Instead of that, very often, we say "matto come un cavallo", literally "as mad as a horse". Horses seem less crazy than humans to me, but, anyway, that's a very common idiom.
Another way to say that is "fuori" (out). So we say "quello è fuori", literally: "that one is out".
There's a variation on the theme which I find very funny, it's "fuori come un balcone" ("as out as a balcony", because balconies are known to never be inside).
So, "quel tizio è proprio fuori come un balcone" may be a good non literal translation for "that bloke is really mad as a hatter".
We also say "matto da legare" ( "mad to be tied"), and here, correct me if I'm wrong, English and Italian finally agree, for this is an English expression too.
However, they say Philip Dick was mad to be tied, but that's ok for me, because he was pure genius, and, without being a genius, I'm a bit "fuori", too.
In the novel I'm reading (rereading, actually), "The Divine Invasion", published in 1981, there's an almost omniscent AI controlling the world, whose name is "big noodle".
I can't avoid noticing a strict assonance with the name of a famous serch engine...
I wonder what Dick would think of that. :)

Here's a list of Italian Idioms:
http://www.pimsleurapproach.com/resources/italian/articles/italian-idioms/

You speak FANTASTIC English! Only found a few mistakes--one deals with the whole "cui" issue in Italian, so that's excusable, one is a spelling error I'm sure you simply overlooked, and one is simply something I believe is a bit awkward but not wrong. Great job!