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Should this be moved to wiktionary? --68.175.44.30 (talk) 21:14, 2 October 2009 (UTC)
We don't have any reliable criteria for rating such an article at WP languages. The rating C class is due to citing only one dictionary for each of the respective etymonogies. If anyone wants to discuss this matter, I would suggest reviewing some similar articles and then going to the talk page of the WP. If someone wants to challenge this specific rating, please go ahead - I'm not gonna discuss this question on the basis of one article. G Purevdorj (talk) 12:28, 21 November 2009 (UTC)
The earliest use of "mad as an adder" that I can find is in 1843: http://books.google.com/books?id=Uq0QAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA98&dq=%22mad+as+an+adder%22&hl=en&ei=wWYQTffAGcjsOaqvkLsJ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBjge#v=onepage&q=%22mad%20as%20an%20adder%22&f=false --Slashme (talk) 08:38, 21 December 2010 (UTC)
The article states, "The origin of the saying is most likely from the book by Lewis Carroll, "Alice In Wonderland", in which there is, quite frankly, a Mad Hatter who is insane.", however Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was written in 1865, with refrences to both Mad as a Hatter and Mad as an Adder dating around 30 years prior (As even mentioned in the article)
ThymeCypher 02:12, 21 January 2012 (UTC)
Looking around for other references, I see:
Snopet doesn't mention Korsakoff syndrome, which is caused by alcoholism not mercury. The other source I can not check, but since erethism doesn't mentorn alkohol I think we can safely assume it's all about the mercury. --95.199.12.191 (talk) 11:44, 3 December 2017 (UTC)