Interesting Idioms: Head Over Heels

The phrase, ‘head over heels’ most often now refers to the feelings of love. For instance, “When I first met my wife, I fell head over heels in love with her and we were married 11 days later.” Incidentally, that example happens to be true in my instance. I met my wife, instantly fell in love with her, and we were married 11 days later. Our 40th wedding anniversary will be in September.

That glimpse into my personal life is a tangent, though. The point is that we use this idiom most often in relation to love and the associated feelings that go along with being in love. Would it surprise you to learn that this isn’t what the phrase first meant, back in the 1700’s when it was first used?

The actual meaning is somewhat simpler. Head over heels really means “upside down”. If you were hanging several feet above the ground, suspended by your ankles, you would be head over heels, both literally and figuratively. Cats will often play with a mouse or a toy, tossing it up into the air, then trying to catch it before it hits the ground. The cats are tossing the mouse or toy head over heels.

‘Head over heels’ wasn’t used in relation to the feeling of love until 1834, when it was used that way in a book. Naturally, that conveys the feeling of intense happiness, which a person might express by doing cartwheels. If they did a cartwheel (or summersault or backflip), they would literally be head over heels. Because of this, the phrase is applicable.

However, the meaning of the phrase was and still is ‘upside down’.