Chapter Macklin to Magellan of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Mad as a Hatter By some said to be a corruption of “Mad as an atter” (adder); but evidence is wanting. The word adder is atter in Saxon, natter in German.

Madame So the wife of Phillipe, Duc d'Orléans was styled in the reign of Louis XIV.; other ladies were only Madame This or That.
   Madame la Duchessc. Wife of Henri-Jules de Bourbon, eldest son of Prince de Condé
   Madame la Princesse. Wife of the Prince de Conde, and natural daughter of Louis XIV. (See Monsieur.)

Mademoiselle (4 syl.). The daughter of Philippe, Duc de Chartres, grandson of Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, brother of Louis XIV.
   La Grande Mademoiselle. The Duchesse de Montpensier, cousin to Louis XIV., and daughter of Gaston. Duc d'Orléns.

Madge An owl.

Madge Wildfire The nickname of Margaret Murdochson, a beautiful but giddy girl, whose brain was crazed by seduction and the murder of her infant. (Sir Walter Scott: Heart of Midlothian.)

Madman Macedonia's madman. Alexander the Great. (B.C. 356, 336-323.)
   The brilliant madman or Madman of the North. Charles XII. of Sweden. (1682, 1697-1718.)

“Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed,
From Macedonia's madman to the Swede
[Charles XII.].” Pope: Essay on Man, iv.

Madness In Perthshire there are several wells and springs dedicated to St. Fillan, which are still places of pilgrimage. These wells are held to be efficacious in cases of madness. Even recently lunatics have been bound to the holy stone at night, under the expectation that St. Fillan would release them before dawn, and send them home in their right minds.

Madoc The youngest son of Owain Gwyneth, King of North Wales, who died in 1169. According to tradition he sailed away to America, and established a colony on the southern branches of the Missouri. About the same time the Aztecas forsook Aztlan, under the guidance of Yuhidthiton, and founded the empire called Mexico, in honour of Mexitli, their tutelary god. Southey has a poem in two parts called Madoc, in which these two events are made to harmonise with each other.

Madonna (Italian, my lady.) Specially applied to representations of the Virgin Mary.

Mador (Sir). The Scotch knight slain in single combat by Sir Launcelot of the Lake, who volunteered to defend the innocence of Queen Guinever.

Madras System of Education A system of mutual instruction, introduced by Dr. Andrew Bell into the institution at Madras for the education of the orphan children of the European military. Bell lived 1753- 1832.

Mæander To wind like the river Mæander, in Phrygia. The “Greek pattern” of embroidery is so called.

Mæcenas A patron of letters; so called from C. Cilnius Mæcenas, a Roman statesman in the reign of Augustus, who kept open house for all men of letters, and was the special friend and patron of Horace and Virgil. Nicholas Rowe so called the Earl of Halifax on his installation to the Order of the Garter (1714).
   The last English Maecenas. Samuel Rogers, poet and banker. (1763-1855.)

Maelstrom (Norwegian, whirling stream). There are about fifty maelströms off the coast of Norway, but the one Englishmen delight to tremble at is at the foot of the Lofoten Islands, between the islands of Moskenes and Mosken, where the water is pushed and jostled a good deal, and when the wind and tide are contrary it is not safe for small boats to venture near.
   It was anciently thought that the Maelström was a subterranean abyss, penetrating the globe, and communicating with the Gulf of Bothnia.