Late Middle English: from late Latin mentalis, from Latin mens, ment- 'mind'.

• mind from Old English:

  English mind shares its ancient root with Latin mens ‘mind’, from which demented (mid 17th century), mental (Late Middle English), and mention derive. The mind can do many wonderful things, including ‘boggling’. The phrase the mind boggles, meaning that someone becomes astonished or overwhelmed at the thought of something, is first recorded in the 1890s. Boggle itself is probably a dialect word related to bogle ‘a phantom or goblin’ and bogey ‘an evil or mischievous spirit’. Someone may have warned you to mind your Ps and Qs, ‘be careful to behave well and avoid giving offence’. The expression has been known since the 1770s, but its exact origins are uncertain. One obvious suggestion is that it comes from a child's early days of learning to read and write, when they might find it difficult to distinguish between the two tailed letters p and q. Another idea suggests that printers had to be very careful to avoid confusing the two letters when setting metal type. Mind how you go!, meaning ‘be careful, look after yourself’, has been common in Britain since the 1940s. It was popularized by the long-running BBC TV series Dixon of Dock Green (1955–76), in which it was a catchphrase of the avuncular PC George Dixon, along with evening all.