| 释义 |
topsy-turvy, adv. (a., n., and v.)|ˌtɒpsɪˈtɜːvɪ|
Forms: α. 6 topsy tervy, tyrvy, turuie, turvy; 6– topsy-turvy, (8–9 -turvey). Also 6 topsituruie, -turuy, 7 -turvy, -turvie, topsi-turvi, top-si-turvy; 6 topsie turuie, -vie, -vey, 6–7 -turuy, 7 -turvie, -turvy; 7 topse-turvie. See also the inverted turvy-topsy. (Now almost always hyphened; in early use more usually two words; sometimes (in every century) as one word.) β–ι: see below.
[A kind of alliterative or assonant combination, known in print from 1528, but prob. in popular use from an earlier period. The early spelling was topsy-tervy or -tirvy, from c 1540 written -turvy, -turvie. (Cf. the pronunciation of nerve, curve.) As to the actual components no external evidence has been found, and numerous conjectures and suggestions (many of them absurd and impossible) have been offered. Some of the more plausible of these, taking topsy as representing top-set or top-side, have been introduced (by those who favoured them) into the spelling; but amid all these aberrations, the typical form, with mere spelling variants, as topsy, topsie, topsi-, and tervy, tirvy, turvy, turvie, has remained practically constant. It seems certain that the first element contains top (or tops) and probable that the second is related to terve or tirve v. to turn, turn over, overturn; but the -sy of the first and -y of the second still want explanation: the former is viewed by some as representing an earlier so, as in up-so-down, now upside-down, so becoming sy under the influence of turvy, the y of which is apparently as in hitty-missy, hurly-burly, arsy-versy. A suggestion that turvy was connected with turf or turve, and referred to the laying of cut turfs or turves face downward, to keep them fresh, is now discarded, as is the earlier notion that turvy might have been altered from t'other way.
(There is a certain parallelism between the series up-so-down, later upset-down, upside-down, and *top-so-tervy, topsy-tervy, topset-tervy, topside-tervy; but the former has not become upsy-down, nor has any trace of *top-so-tervy been yet found, so that the analogy is incomplete.)]
A. adv.
a. With the top where the bottom should be; in or into an inverted position; upside down, bottom upwards; also less definitely, In or into the position of being toppled over, overturned, overthrown, or upset; right over. (Most commonly qualifying the vb. turn, or used predicatively after be, lie, etc.)
1530Palsgr. 843/1 Topsy tyrvy, ceu dessus dessoubz. 1555Eden Decades 46 They say that..they see the houses turne topsy turuye, and men to walke with theyr heeles vpwarde. 1615G. Sandys Trav. iii. 205 The huge wals and arches turned topsie turuey, and lying like rockes vpon the foundation. 1747Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. (1861) II. 450 As soon as I got into my chair, the chairmen fairly overturned it:..Lord Westmoreland..found me topsy turvy. 1847Alb. Smith Chr. Tadpole ix, Wondering how the flies could walk topsy-turvy on the ceiling. 1848Dickens Dombey vi, A chaos of carts, overthrown and jumbled together, lay topsy-turvy at the bottom of a..hill. 1871R. Ellis Catullus xvii. 9 Catullus adjures thee Head⁓long into the mire below topsy-turvy to drown him. 1907Verney Mem. I. 297 He writes topsy-turvy in sympathetic ink, between the lines of a letter ostensibly full of public news.
b. fig. With the higher where the lower should be; in or into a reversed condition; with inversion of the natural or proper order; less definitely, With things all in wrong places or positions; in or into utter confusion, dislocation, or disorder.
1528Roy Rede me (Arb.) 51 He tourneth all thynge topsy tervy. c1540tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden) I. 283 The deathe of Canutus didd noe lesse turne all thinges topsie-turvie in Denmarcke. 1579Fulke Heskins' Parl. 215 This comparison is topsituruie. a1623Fletcher Love's Cure ii. ii, Custom hath turn'd Nature topsy-turvy in you. 1670G. H. Hist. Cardinals ii. i. 128 Turning all Europe as it were top-si-turvy. 1713Addison Guard. No. 154 ⁋2, I found nature turned topsy-turvey, women changed into men, and men into women. 1833H. Martineau Fr. Wines & Pol. viii. 125 How strangely the values of things are turned topsy-turvy! 1866R. M. Ballantyne Shift. Winds xxvii, A world of inconsistencies, where things are all topsy-turvy, so to speak.
¶ Also in various altered or corrupt forms, mostly indicating popular or conjectural etymologies: see above.
(β) 6 topset tourvie, toruie, turvie, -tirvi.
1549Chaloner Erasm. on Folly A iij, Bothe holy and vnholy thyngs be tourned topset touruie. 1553N. Grimalde Cicero's Offices i. (1558) 12 Who tourned topset toruie all the lawes of God. 1573G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 53 Thus within a few years al shuld be turnid topset tirvi.
(γ) 6 top syd turuye, (topside turfway), 6–8 topside turvy, 6–9 -vey.
1582Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 59 Top syd turuye be turned Al thee Princelye thrasholds. c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. lviii. vii, With whirlwinds topside turfway blown. 1596Spenser F.Q. v. viii. 42 At last they have all overthrowne to ground Quite topside turvey. 1686Goad Celest. Bodies iii. iv. 499 Dreadful Tempest, turned several Villages..Topside-turvy. 1761Sterne Tr. Shandy IV. xix, How was my system turned topside turvy! 1815M. Pilkington Celebrity III. i. 25 The world must be turned topside-turvey.
(δ) 6 topside thother-way, 7 topside t'other way, 8 topside the other way.
1577Holinshed Chron. I. Descr. Irel. 14 b/1 The estate of that flourishing towne was tourned arsye versye, topside thother-way. 1654H. L'Estrange Chas. I (1655) 75 Thus were all things strangely turned in a trice topside t'other way. 1768Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 456 His [Socrates'] words are to be turned topside the other way to understand them.
(ε) 6 typsiturvy, typsy tyrvye, 8 tipsy-turvy.
1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 324 b, The generall fraylty of nature will violently carry you away typsiturvy. Ibid. 569 Typsy tyrvye. 1766[C. Anstey] Bath Guide ii. 35 Their Systems..all turn'd tipsy-turvy [later edd. topsy-].
(ζ) 7 tupsiturvie.
1640Howell Dodona's Gr. 50 They would have turned up tupsiturvie the very kingdome of Satan.
(η) 6 top turuye.
1582Stanyhurst æneis (Arb.) 33 His launce staffe thee dust top turuye doth harrow.
(θ) 7 topsiturnie, topsie turnie.
1617Minsheu Duct. Ling., Topsiturnie, the topside turned..Arsiuersie. 1655in Clarendon Papers No. 1753, [They] would assuredly turne all that hath been ajusted topsie turnie.
(ι) Sc. (? associated with topsail: see topsail c.) 7 topsoltiria, tops o're tiria, 8–9 tapsalteerie, 9 tapsal-, tapsil-, tapsul-teerie, -teery, tapseeteerie, topsieteerie.
1623Lithgow Trav. 202 Let all the misticall drifts and ambiguous designes..turne topsoltiria, or upside downe, I care not. 1684in Maidment Bk. Scott. Pasquils (1868) 326 There was a duke so full of pryde There durst no man come neeria Till cam a monkey out of Fife And dang him tops o're tiria. 1784Burns ‘Green grow the Rashes’ iv, An' warly cares, an' warly men, May a' gae tapsalteerie, O! 1801Macneill Poet. Wks. (1844) 90 And dealing round strong punch and joke, Good-humoured mad, near twa o'clock, Turns a' things tapsilteery! 1805A. Scott Poems (1808) 100 For tapsee-teerie lie the sheaves. 1827J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. July, Wks. 1855 II. 10 Wi' ae desperate wallop we baith gaed tapsalteerie.
B. adj. Turned upside down; inverted, reversed; fig. utterly confused or disorderly.
1618Bp. W. Barlow Breife Disc. 8 With those topsituruy motions. 1710Swift On a Broomstick ⁋ 2 Wks. 1755 II. i. 181 What is man, but a topsy-turvey creature..his head where his heels should be? 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) II. xxxiv. 248 Dear! what a topsy-turvy house is this! 1856F. E. Paget Owlet Owlst. 1 This queer topsy-turvy world. 1873M. E. Braddon L. Davoren i. i, It was the topsy-turviest kind of thing I ever heard in my life. 1887Spectator 6 Aug. 1050/2 A very topsy-turvy way of reasoning. 1904Westm. Gaz. 3 June 8/1 Inventor and engineer of the topsy-turvy railway.
C. n. The act of turning or fact of being turned upside down; inversion of the proper order; state of utter confusion or disorder.
1655tr. De Parc's Francion iv. 10 They played topsy turvy excellently well, for there was not a book in all the Study which..they had not thrown on the ground. 1683E. Hooker Pref. Pordage's Mystic Div. 24 The whol frame of the world seemeth to me..to circumgyrate, to wheel, whirl, and turn round about in a Topsi-Turvi. 1692tr. Sallust 3 Nor should we see such Topsy-Turvies in the World. 1823Moore Fables, Holy Alliance iv. 2 Of all that, to the sage's survey, This world presents of topsy-turvey. 1879Geo. Eliot Theo. Such x. 181 Finds matter for screaming laughter in mere topsy-turvy.
D. as v. trans. To turn topsy-turvy or upside down; to invert; fig. to reverse; to throw into utter confusion, upset or disorder greatly. Hence ˌtopsy-ˈturvied ppl. a., ˌtopsy-ˈturvying vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1626T. H[awkins] Caussin's Holy Crt. 163 They had..one sole action in this life, which is to topsy-turuy all things, and to do nothing. 1741Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 119 My poor mind is all topsy-turvied. 1807Southey Let. to J. May 30 Mar., In this topsey-turveying of ministers. 1834― Doctor xxxix. II. 59 In the topsy-turveying course of time. 1863Sala Capt. Dangerous II. iv. 148 He..Topsy-turvies his goblet. 1967[see skoob].
Hence (chiefly nonce-wds.) topsy-ˈturvical a., of a topsy-turvy character; topsy-turvifiˈcation, a making or turning topsy-turvy, reversal of the natural order; topsy-ˈturvify v., trans. to make or turn topsy-turvy; topsy-ˈturvily adv., in a topsy-turvy manner; topsy-ˈturviment, act of turning or condition of being turned topsy-turvy; topsy-ˈturviness, topsy-turvy quality or condition; † topsy-ˈturvyan, an inhabitant of an imaginary ‘Topsy-turvy Island’; topsy-ˈturvydom, the realm of topsy-turvy, inversion, or confusion; also, topsy-turvy condition or state; topsy-ˈturvyhood = topsy-turviness; topsy-ˈturvyism, topsy-turvy system or method; topsy-ˈturvyist, an advocate of something (considered to be) topsy-turvy; topsy-ˈturvyize v., trans. to turn topsy-turvy, throw into confusion, upset.
1882Pall Mall G. 10 Oct. 6 Its *topsy-turvical fun is characteristic of the author.
1840Thackeray Paris Sk.-Bk. xvii. Wks. 1900 V. 191 A regular *topsyturvyfication of morality. 1879G. Saintsbury in Fortn. Rev. No. 151. 55 One of the oddest topsyturvifications of a noble sentiment to be anywhere found.
1886Sat. Rev. 27 Feb. 286/1 We have *topsyturvified the whole theory of politics. 1887Saintsbury Hist. Elizab. Lit. iv. (1894) 146 The topsy-turvified conceits which came to a climax in Crashaw.
1886Daily Tel. 5 Feb. (Cassell), [He] might well be employed for Faust viewed *topsyturvily. 1908Athenæum 29 Aug. 233/1 All the MSS. topsy-turvily give µε{ddd}γε σοῦ, with the exception of one, which has σε{ddd}γε σοῦ, whence Brunck restored σε{ddd}γέ µου.
1884Daily News 28 Mar. 5 The *topsy-turvyment of the house.
1842Fraser's Mag. XXVI. 544 Full of sport and fun, frolic and ‘*topsy-turvyness’. 1892Times 22 Dec. 9/3 They lost all perception of the topsy-turvyness of the situation.
1745Eliza Heywood Female Spect. No. 19 (1755) IV. 11 The present race of the *Topsy-Turvyans are..too indolent to reflect on their misfortunes.
1870W. S. Gilbert in Fun 19 Mar. 15/1, I dreamt that somehow I had come To dwell in *Topsy-Turveydom! 1878L. Wingfield Lady Grizel III. v. 107 A faint hope that topsy-turvydom might bring with it the glorious bygone days. 1904Edin. Rev. Apr. 469 The most absurd instance of Japanese topseyturveydom.
1791H. Walpole Let. to Miss M. Berry 19 May, That *topsy-turvy-hood which characterizes the present age. 1855Dickens Lett. (1880) I. 408 In that state of topsy-turvyhood.
1880F. G. Lee Church under Q. Eliz. l. p. xv, Disorder and *topsy-turvyism must certainly have risen to a perfect climax.
1890Illustr. Lond. News 9 Aug. 166/2 The new school of *topsy-turvyists.
1893Daily News 24 July 6/2 Something like an unusual *topsy-turvyising of this great throughfare might be looked for. |