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Undoubtedly, I have heard this zillions of times since my childhood.

get lost - used to tell someone forcefully and quite rudely to go away

Now, look at this campaign sentence -

The soothing music of subliminal language takes you to the eternal journey of your soul. It's mind refreshing and rejuvenating. You get lost into the world of serenity and divineness.

Get lost... huh? I literally mean that you really lose yourself into the world...

Is it proper to use get lost there? Still, I want other alternative that should mean one loses themselves into that world.

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  • 1
    Not really an answer, but I understand "get lost" as two words "get" and "lost". It's just that "Get lost!" is used in a specific (and quite rude) meaning. I think it should be "get lost in the world of ..." or "lose yourself (in)to the world of ..."
    – Damkerng T.
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 7:00
  • 3
    The 2nd meaning is also idiomatic. See lose oneself in.
    – Helix Quar
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 10:24

3 Answers 3

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The meaning of get lost as bugger off only applies when you use it as an imperative.

In the sentence

You get lost into the world of serenity and divineness.

There is no imperative to be found, so the idiomatic meaning of the imperative "get lost!" does not apply.

You could, if you really wanted to, change the meaning of the phrase with a simple comma:

You, get lost into the world of serenity and divineness.

But that would be stretching it. It does't really make sense to order someone to get lost in such a nice environment.

Even when used as an imperative, the "bugger off" meaning is not there unless context makes it very clear that it is mean to be rude.

As Damkerng T. notes, you could write:

Get lost into the world of serenity and divineness.

meaning

Lose yourself in the world of serenity and divineness.

To get lost usually simply means that you lose you way around somewhere - it only means that you should remove yourself literally off the premises when it is used as an imperative, standing on its own.

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  • +1 for the concept of imperative. that's nice input.
    – Maulik V
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 7:03
  • or reported speech: I told him to get lost
    – smci
    Commented Apr 5, 2014 at 2:27
  • or subjunctive: I wish he would get lost
    – smci
    Commented Apr 5, 2014 at 2:27
  • @smci but not always: I wish he would get lost in the music (OK, a little contrived)
    – David Richerby
    Commented Apr 5, 2014 at 10:56
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    Sure, my point was simply to correct @oerkelens: get lost as bugger off only applies when you use it as an imperative.
    – smci
    Commented Apr 5, 2014 at 21:57
4

I find "get lost into" a bit clumsy - I'd rather hear "get lost in".

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8
  • I purposely used into as it's moving from one place to another which generally takes into. Milk pour into the jar from a bottle.
    – Maulik V
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 10:32
  • @MaulikV, while I think you are technically correct, it still sounds wrong to me :)
    – xorsyst
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 10:55
  • books.google.co.in/…
    – Maulik V
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 11:01
  • 2
    @MaulikV It could sound wrong. Based on your link to the book, I tweaked the search a little: "lost into another world" returns 10 results, "lost in another world" returns 16,600 results, "get lost into another world" returns 3 results, and "get lost in another world" returns 341 results.
    – Damkerng T.
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 11:16
  • 1
    “Get lost into” isn't idiomatic and grates on my ears and, I suspect, those of any native speaker.
    – Emmet
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 20:21
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I agree that the use of "get lost" may sound awkward in the sentence, though correct.

lose your way may be an alternative or find a new dimension can also fit the spirit of the ad.

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