More on phrases …

I try to avoid use of the phrase ‘bear in mind’ or is it ‘bare in mind’ because I can never remember which bear/bare is right. I’m quite good at using ‘be mindful’, or ‘taking into account’ or similar.

I’ve tried to think of the origins of the phrase, to work out exactly what it means to see if I can figure out which spelling to use. What does it mean anyway? If it means ‘keep in mind’, or ‘be alert’, or ‘be prepared’ then I would argue that either bear or bare is relevant – I’m sure there are many situations where bare (in terms of naked) can be just as alarming as a bear when encountered unexpectedly.

Whoa – that affogato they gave me at Fuel this afternoon really has sent my brain off into a spin!

By the way, it’s ‘bear in mind’.

Bear [in mind] (v):
To hold in one’s mind; remember

Bear (n):
Big omnivorous mammal of the family Ursidae