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To Be In Two Minds

To Be In Two Minds 


Meaning:

To Be In Two Minds means that you are having issues making a choice. You are unable to decide. “I don’t know; I am in two minds.”


Origin:

The phrase goes back to the early sixteenth century, although the number two was not fixed to the statement, it was still used in the same sense as it is used today  - that there is an issue trying to make a choice.

 Jehan Palsgrave wrote (1530), 

“I am of dyverse myndes,”

The phrase took the modern writing in l853 in Charles Dickens book Child’s History of England it reads:

 “. . . was in two minds about fighting or accepting a pardon”


Example:

Today the idiom has not changed from when it was originally used, we still use it to express having issues making a choice. An example sentence is:

“I was in two minds about leaving the country; my friends are all here, but at the same time I really wanted to work abroad.”





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