Out of sight, out of mind

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Meaning

People tend to forget or neglect someone or something that is no longer visible or present. Often describes neglect caused by absence; it may refer to objects, problems, or people. Regional use: Medieval English proverbial ancestry; now widespread.

Origin

An English precursor appears about 1250 in the Proverbs of Alfred: someone shut out of sight is soon forgotten within. A mid-fifteenth-century English translation of Thomas a Kempis similarly says that when a person is out of sight, that person soon passes out of mind. Richard Taverner's 1545 version of Erasmus' Adages records the compact wording Oute of syght, oute of mynde. The idea and verbal pairing are therefore medieval, while the exact balanced formula belongs to early modern print.

Research Sources

  1. Cambridge University Press: Cognitive Contact Linguistics Cambridge University Press
  2. Dictionary.com: out of sight, out of mind Dictionary.com
  3. Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs Oxford University Press

Variants

  • Once out of sight, soon out of mind

Usage Examples

  • Once the broken boxes were moved downstairs, everyone forgot about them: out of sight, out of mind.
  • Remote staff feared an out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach to promotion.
  • He hid the unpaid invoice in a drawer and adopted an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude.

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