topsy-turvy
Part of speech: adv
adj
noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: The origin of the adverb and adjective are uncertain. Topsy is probably derived from top or tops, though this does not explain the -sy ending; it has been suggested that the latter comes from so (thus, top so) or from top-set or top-side, modified to match the -y ending of turvy. The term topside-turvy is mentioned in the Anglo-Irish writer Laurence Sterne’s novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759–1767).Turvy is probably derived from a rare (scarcely attested) obsolete English word terve, turve (“to be thrown down; to fall; to dash down; to cast, throw; to turn back or down; to fold or roll over”) + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of; inclined to’), with turve inherited from Middle English terven (“to throw (something) down; to throw (something) into confusion; to level; to resort or turn (to something); to go, move; to turn; to collapse, fall”) […], perhaps from Old English *tierfan (compare Old English tearflian (“to roll over, wallow”)) or from Old English torfian (“to launch, throw; to shoot missiles at; to stone; to be tossed”), from Proto-Germanic *turbōną (“to fling, hurl”), *turbijaną (“to turn, twist”) (whence Old English ġetyrfian (“to assail with missiles; to assault, attack”)), from Proto-Indo-European *derbʰ- (“to spin, twist”). Thus, the term as a whole may literally mean “having the top side thrown or turned down”.
The noun and verb are probably derived from the adverb and adjective.
Affixes: -y
Inflected forms:
form: more topsy-turvy
pos: adv
tags: comparative
form: most topsy-turvy
pos: adv
tags: superlative
form: topside-turvy
pos: adv
tags: alternative
form: topsyturvy
pos: adv
tags: alternative
form: topsy turvy
pos: adv
tags: alternative
form: topsy-turvier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: topsy-turviest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: topsy-turvey
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: topsyturvy
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: topsy turvy
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: topsy-turvies
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: topsy-turvies
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: topsy-turvys
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: topsy-turvying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: topsy-turvied
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: topsy-turvied
pos: verb
tags: past
form: topsy-turvyed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: topsy-turvyed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: topsy-turvey
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: topsy turvy
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Backwards or upside down; also, having been overturned or upset.
pos: adv
examples: Thou toyl'ſt in perrill, and the vvindie ſtorme, / Doth topſide-turuey toſſe thee as thou floteſt.
If we without his helpe can make a head / To puſh againſt a kingdome, with his helpe / We ſhal oreturne it topsie turuy down, [...]
China, and Ganges, and Japan, / Are Words my Papa taught my Pen. He ſays, they're Countries to be found, / In a ſtrange World, below the Ground; / Where Folks with Feet erected treat, / And diſtant, downward hang their Head; / Fearleſs they topſy turvy run, / With naught beneath—but Skies and Sun.
[A]s the Parſon told us laſt Sunday, nobody believes in the Devil now-a-days; and here you bring about a Parcel of Puppets dreſt up like Lords and Ladies, only to turn the Heads of poor Country Wenches, and when their Heads are once turned topſy turvy, no wonder every thing elſe is ſo.
[...] Maggie [...] had stolen unperceived to her father's elbow again, listening with parted lips, while she held her doll topsy-turvy, and crushed its nose against the wood of the chair— [...]
gloss: Not in the natural order of things; in a disorderly manner; chaotically.
pos: adv
tags: figuratively
examples: Diuilliſh it is to deſtroy a cittie, but more then diuilliſhe, to euert citties, to betraye countreies, to cause ſeruaunts to kyll their maiſters, parentes theyr children, children their parentes, wiues their huſbandes, and to turne all things topſy turuy, and yet it doth ſo, as ſhalbe declared.
gloss: Backwards or upside down.
pos: adj
examples: If I travel Aunt, I touch at your Antipodes—your Antipodes are a good raſcally ſort of topſy turvy Fellows—If I had a Bumper I'd ſtand upon my Head and drink a Health to ’em— [...]
This argument, vaguely political in nature, took place as often as the two men met. It was a topsy-turvy affair, for the Englishman was bitterly anti-English and the Indian fanatically loyal.
gloss: Chaotic; disorderly.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: [John] Chrysostom saith, An Oath came in when Evils increased, when men appeared unfaithful, when all things became Topsy Turvy.
You have not kept her comfortable-easy. Something has turned her poor little mind topsy-turvies.
It feels like I've stepped through the looking glass and am wandering in a topsy-turvy world where the fixpoints we have lived with for decades have gone. Not just moved … gone.
gloss: An act of turning something backwards or upside down, or the situation that something is in after this has happened.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: Perhaps he was at a loss for the points of compass, as is often the case in tumbles and topsy-turvies.
gloss: A situation where the natural order of things has been upset.
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
examples: [I ...] has seed a heap of scatterments and topsyturvies: here's hoping dat you all may swim smoofly along the briny waves of sacrificin' time, and ford the Jordan of destructive equinoxes, while fiery billows roll beneath!
The best-known examples of children’s nonsense language play, and their ‘topsy turvies’, or inversion of reality, are in Chukovsky, who asserts that such topsy turvies ‘strengthen (not weaken) the child’s awareness of reality’ [...].
gloss: Chaos, confusion, disorder.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
uncountable
examples: Why should we [...] use it [our sense of the ludicrous] to degrade the healthy appetites and affections of our nature as they are seen to be degraded in insane patients whose system, all out of joint, finds matter for screaming laughter in mere topsy-turvy, [...?]
gloss: To turn topsy-turvy or upside down; to invert.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Mr. [George] Eliot's descriptions of scenery are perfect: [...] and so are his descriptions of children. [...] We forbear (though with regret) the introduction to our readers of Totty's bald doll, ignominously ‘topsy turvied’ by her insulting brother.
The already lithified/hardened late Early/early Middle Oxfordian chunks/slabs of the oolitic limestones fragmented and rotated, even topsy-turvied upside down in the repetitive violent/explosive shake ups.
gloss: To throw into chaos or disorder; to upset.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: [...] Mrs. Sykes said, ‘her man was the wust she ever knowed when he got topsy-turveyed.’ And as now, he began to get topsy-turveyed pretty regularly before he had finished his daily business with the retiring host of the Holly Bush, there was not much peace at home.
Has not a diluent expletive been interjected to fill up a line? has not a plain proposition been topsy-turvied, till subject and object are miserably confused, because of accent?
It is one among their many greater advantages from this surprisal of the enemy, and sudden topsy-turvying of his plans.
[M]y literary life was rather topsy-turveyed by a couple of untoward accidents last year, and a prostrating attack of influenza, and bronchitis subsequently, for the cure of which I am indebted to the climate of Portugal, [...]
Being from a lower caste, she earns her meager livelihood by cleaning the stairs and guarding the locality (the conventional roles are topsy turvyed).
Derived words: topsy-turvification
topsy-turvify
topsy-turvily
topsy-turviness
topsy-turvyness
topsy-turvydom
topsy-turvyhood
topsy-turvied
topsy-turvying
Translations: