Swept away?

Posted by Lotg on May 16, 2004

In Reply to: Phrase origin for "Don't get carried away" posted by Mike on May 12, 2004

: : Does anyone have any idea how this phrase originated. Or, do you know of a search engine I could use? Thus far, no search engine exists in my research that even quotes the phrase. Thanks for the help.

I don't know the answer to this - ie. it's origin, but it seems to me to be a variant of 'swept away', which implies something to do with current - as in water. So I'd suggest the origin is based on not allowing oneself to be 'carried away' or 'swept away' with the current.