Re: Out of your mind

Posted by ESC on February 10, 2003

In Reply to: Out of your mind posted by rfiery on February 08, 2003

: I would appreciate info on the origin of the phrase "out of your mind". thanks

"Beside himself. Why do we describe a distraught person as being 'beside himself'? Because the ancients believed that soul and body could part and that under great emotional stress the soul would actually leave the body. When this happened a person was 'beside himself.' This same thought is to be found in 'out of his mind'; and in 'estasy' too. 'Ecstasy' is from the Greek and literally means 'to stand out of.'" From "Dictionary of Word Origins" by Jordan Almond (Carol Publishing Group, Secaucus, N.J., 1998)