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Beside yourself

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pussing | 07:23 Mon 23rd Jun 2003 | Phrases & Sayings
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Where did the phrase 'I was Beside Myself' come from and what does it mean?
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This has been used since the 15th century to mean maddened/out of one's senses. A similar phrase in French: 'hors de soi' - literally 'out of oneself' - means just the same thing. The idea is that you and your mind are somehow 'adrift' from each other, as it were.
08:24 Mon 23rd Jun 2003
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Just to add an afterthought to my previous answer...the earliest-recorded version of the phrase in written English was in a Caxton publication of 1490 called 'Enydos'. In a sense, therefore, that's where it 'came from', though it may have existed before that in spoken form, of course.
05:57 Mon 30th Jun 2003

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