Edition No. 2 – July 2025
🗞️ The My-glassMarbles Gazette
The independent media dedicated to marbles
M Ladies and gentlemen the curious, Sunday linguists, history lovers… and of course marble enthusiasts, this Gazette is made for you!
In this first edition, we invite you on an amazing double journey:
🎈 On one side, you will discover how a simple everyday expression — "to lose one's marbles" — finds its roots in our playgrounds, and how these small round objects have left their mark even in our language.
🔍 On the other hand, set course for a little-known (and incredible) episode of the Second World War, where the name of a tennis champion, Alice Marble, becomes the occasion for a spy game worthy of a movie… with a "marble" as a secret agent.
Get ready to see marbles in a new light!
Happy reading - the My-glassMarbles team
🎈The thousand lives of our marbles
What does the expression "to lose one's marbles" mean and does it really come from the marble game?
The expression "to lose one's marbles" is a familiar phrase meaning to be disoriented, destabilized, or taken aback. It evokes a moment of hesitation, a loss of bearings, close to the more common expression "to lose one's mind", which suggests a slight mental or emotional disturbance.
This expression indeed finds its roots in the traditional marble game. The image is telling: a child who loses all their marbles during a game feels great disappointment. In playgrounds, losing one's marbles often means losing the turn, losing confidence, or feeling down. Hence the association with the feeling of confusion or loss of balance.
In classic games like "the hole" or "the circle", children bet their marbles. By losing them, they feel frustration, sometimes even a sense of failure. It is this emotion that the expression "to lose one's marbles" evokes.
In English, there is a very similar expression: "to lose one's marbles", which literally means "perdre ses billes", but is understood as "to lose one's mind" or become confused. This correspondence is not a borrowing from the French expression, but it reflects a similar idea: losing one's marbles means losing part of one's mental or emotional balance.
In colloquial language, "marbles" can also mean money. Thus, "to take back one's marbles" means to withdraw from a project or recover one's investment. On the other hand, "to lose one's marbles" retains a more psychological or emotional meaning.
The expression "to lose one's marbles" is therefore deeply rooted in the world of marble games. It conveys this idea of loss of control or dismay that one feels when seeing one's marbles drift away one by one. A beautiful illustration of how childhood games leave their mark on our everyday language.
🔍 The curious corner
What is the most surprising role that marbles played during the Second World War?
The most surprising role of marbles during World War II: a matter of espionage… and tennis!
When thinking of marbles during World War II, it is hard to imagine they could be linked to a spying mission. Yet, the most surprising connection does not concern a glass marble… but a woman bearing that name: Alice Marble, American tennis champion.
Between the 1930s and 1940s, Alice Marble won 18 Grand Slam titles, marking sports history. But what few people know is that after a series of personal tragedies – the loss of her husband and a miscarriage – she joined the American intelligence service.
In her autobiography Courting Danger, she recounts accepting a mission in Switzerland to infiltrate a former lover, a banker suspected of financing the Nazis. She reportedly managed to photograph confidential documents in his safe while charming him to avoid suspicion. Pursued by a Nazi officer, she was wounded before she could return to New York, shortly after the Allies' victory in Europe.
While some researchers doubt the truth of this mission – the story is mainly based on her own accounts – Alice Marble remained convinced she served the Allied cause.
In the history of marbles, the most unexpected role goes to Alice Marble, whose name evokes the famous glass spheres. But here, no child's play: her commitment mixes high-level sport, personal tragedy, and espionage during a world war. A human “marble” with an extraordinary destiny, proving that behind a name can hide an extraordinary story.
🕰️ Want to know more about the surprising role marbles have played in History?
👉 Discover in our encyclopedic FAQ where you will find other stories besides that of this famous tennis player who turned her name — Marble — into a spying operation during World War II!
📚 Sources and inspirations
- “Perdre ses billes” – French expression dictionaries and sites: Le Robert, Expressio.fr, Wiktionnaire.
- “Lose one’s marbles” – Cambridge Dictionary, The Phrase Finder.
- Alice Marble – Autobiography “Courting Danger”, St. Martin’s Press editions, 1991.
- Article “The Secret Life of Alice Marble” – History.com
- Documentary files of the US Open Tennis and WTA archives