What do we mean when we say it today?
We know what you’re thinking. We’ve got the “vanish into air” part from Othello and the “thin” part from The Tempest, but when exactly did it become “vanish into thin air” all together? The answer is that this phrase adapted over time.
Once John Milton and William Blake used Shakespeare’s phrase, everyone else started to, too. These days, we usually hear people say something “vanished into thin air” when they are talking about something disappearing in an unbelievable way. Sometimes it’s used on crime scene shows: "the killer vanished into thin air"; or when talking about lost car keys: "they couldn’t have vanished into thin air!" Sometimes our money vanishes into thin air. We swear that’s true.