Preposterous phrases

Inside-out is a 17th century expression that is still widely used. As well as being the title of many films, albums and books, it has been taken up as the name of a tennis shot, an archytectural style, even a type of cheeseburger.

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Known in English since at least 1340, ‘upside-down’ is one of the oldest commonly used expressions in the language.

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This US expression has numerous variants. Oddly though, the ‘ass-backwards’ variant that may seem to be the source of ‘bass-ackwards’ was actually coined later.

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Topsy-turvy is an old English expression. It derives from the earlier ‘top-over-terve’ which means ‘topple-over’.

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Like ‘bass-ackwards’ this is something of an odd choice as an expression meaning disorder and muddle – our head is usually over our heels.

See more about ‘Head over heels’.