http://www.word-detective.com/2014/02/9603/ Semper Ubi Sub Ubi Fri, 01 Oct 2021 20:35:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.1 http://www.word-detective.com/2014/02/9603/comment-page-1/#comment-836405 Sun, 05 Jan 2020 23:37:22 +0000 http://www.word-detective.com/?p=9603#comment-836405 “out of hand” – In very ancient times each master or head of household controlled the fate and indeed actually the life of everything and every person in his household. To be “out of hand” would be to somehow challenge this total power, by running away and leaving or by being expelled by this master from his household and thus be: “out of hand”…
I understand this saying to be the oldest known & still used. The reins of a bucking bronco falling “out of hand” sounds like a good modern guess, and surely would be a bad situation, but I betcha the Oxford Dictionary will argue that origin?

]]>