phrases - Why is "head over heels" used as if it were exceptional rather than commonplace?


Most people spend part of each day standing, and if they have normal anatomy their heads are over their heels in this position. Even sitting or lying down, the head is higher than the heels (if not over the heels). Yet the phrase "head over heels" is used in ways implying it is an unusual situation. How did such usage come to be, and why does it persist? Why is the more obvious "heels over head" not used?



Answer



The Oxford English Dictionary describes "head over heels" as a corruption of "heels over head" (my emphasis). The latter phrase it cites from 1400.


My own experience is that as a small child "head over heels" was the first term I knew for what was later called a "somersault".


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