The origin of theadverb andadjective are uncertain.Topsy is probably derived fromtop ortops, though this does not explain the-sy ending; it has been suggested that the latter comes fromso (thus,top so) or fromtop-set ortop-side, modified to match the-y ending ofturvy. The termtopside-turvy is mentioned in the Anglo-Irish writerLaurence Sterne’s novel,The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759–1767).Turvy is probably derived from a rare (scarcely attested) obsolete English wordterve,turve(“to be thrown down; to fall; to dash down; to cast, throw; to turn back or down; to fold or roll over”)[1] +-y(suffix meaning ‘having the quality of; inclined to’), withturve inherited fromMiddle Englishterven(“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 fromOld English*tierfan (compareOld Englishtearflian(“to roll over, wallow”))[2] or fromOld Englishtorfian(“to launch, throw; to shoot missiles at; to stone; to be tossed”), fromProto-Germanic*turbōną(“to fling, hurl”),*turbijaną(“to turn, twist”) (whenceOld Englishġetyrfian(“to assail with missiles; to assault, attack”)), fromProto-Indo-European*derbʰ-(“to spin, twist”). Thus, the term as a whole may literally mean “having the top side thrown or turned down”.
Thenoun andverb are probably derived from the adverb and adjective.
If we without his helpe can make a head / To puſh againſt a kingdome, with his helpe / We ſhal oreturne ittopsie turuy down, [...]
1742,John Winstanley, “A Child’sAnswer to an Invitation; Done by His Father”, inPoems Written Occasionally[…], Dublin:[…] S. Powell, for the author,→OCLC,pages31–32:
China, andGanges, andJapan, / Are Words myPapa 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 theytopſy turvy run, / With naught beneath—but Skies and Sun.
[A]s the Parſon told us laſtSunday, 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 turnedtopſy 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 dolltopsy-turvy, and crushed its nose against the wood of the chair— [...]
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 thingstopſy turuy, and yet it doth ſo, as ſhalbe declared.
If I travel Aunt, I touch at yourAntipodes—yourAntipodes are a good raſcally ſort oftopſy 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 atopsy-turvy affair, for the Englishman was bitterly anti-English and the Indian fanatically loyal.
1675,William Penn, “The Ground or Reason of Swearing”, inA Treatise of Oaths, Containing Several Weighty Reasons why the People Call’d Quakers Refuse to Swear:[…],[London]:[s.n.],→OCLC,page10:
[John]Chrysostom saith,An Oath came in when Evils increased, when men appeared unfaithful, when all things becameTopsy Turvy.
You havenot kept her comfortable-easy. Something has turned her poor little mindtopsy-turvies.]
2020 June 3, Stefanie Foster, “Comment: The Recovery Starts here”, inRail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire:Bauer Media,→ISSN,→OCLC, page 3:
It feels like I've stepped through the looking glass and am wandering in atopsy-turvy world where the fixpoints we have lived with for decades have gone. Not just moved … gone.
1850,[Warren Burton], “Augustus Starr, the Privateer who Turned Pedagogue—His New Crew Mutiny, and Perform a Singular Exploit”, inThe District School as It Was.[…], revised edition, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson and Company,[…],→OCLC,page159:
Perhaps he was at a loss for the points of compass, as is often the case in tumbles andtopsy-turvies.
1849,C[alvin] H[enderson] Wiley, “Boyish Conversation”, inRoanoke; or, “Where is Utopia?”[…], Philadelphia, Pa.: T. B. Peterson & Brothers,[…], published1866,→OCLC,pages110–111:
[I ...] has seed a heap of scatterments andtopsyturvies: 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!
2006, Sue Robson, “Language, Communication and Thought”, inDeveloping Thinking and Understanding in Young Children: An Introduction for Students, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.:Routledge,→ISBN,page114:
The best-known examples of children’s nonsense language play, and their ‘topsy turvies’, or inversion of reality, are in Chukovsky, who asserts that suchtopsy turvies ‘strengthen (not weaken) the child’s awareness of reality’ [...].
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 meretopsy-turvy, [...?]
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.
2017, Jai Krishna, “High-resolution Intrabasinal to Inter-regional Geodynamic Chronicle during the Span of the Intra-Permian–Intra-Paleogene Mega-sequence in and around India on the GTM”, inThe Indian Mesozoic Chronicle: Sequence Stratigraphic Approach (Springer Geology), Singapore:Springer Nature,→DOI,→ISBN,→ISSN,page586:
The already lithified/hardened late Early/early Middle Oxfordian chunks/slabs of the oolitic limestones fragmented and rotated, eventopsy-turvied upside down in the repetitive violent/explosive shake ups.
[1854], G[eorge] E[liel] Sargent, “How the Legacy Went. In Two Chapters.”, inMoralities for Home, London: Groombridge and Sons.[…],→OCLC, chapter II (How It Departed),page148:
[...] Mrs. Sykes said, ‘her man was the wust she ever knowed when he gottopsy-turveyed.’ And as now, he began to gettopsy-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 aline? has not a plain proposition beentopsy-turvied, till subject and object are miserably confused, because ofaccent?
It is one among their many greater advantages from this surprisal of the enemy, and suddentopsy-turvying of his plans.
1892, M[aurice] O’Connor Morris, “Introduction”, inMemini: Or Reminiscences of Irish Life, London:Harrison & Sons,[…],→OCLC,page ix:
[M]y literary life was rathertopsy-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, [...]
2007, “Portrayal of Diaspora Experiences”, in Basavaraj Naikar, editor,Indian English Literature, volume II, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors,→ISBN,page195:
Being from a lower caste, she earns her meager livelihood by cleaning the stairs and guarding the locality (the conventional roles aretopsy turvyed).
, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1913;“topsy-turvy,adv.,adj., andn.”, inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
Topsy-Turvy (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia