Why do we say: "Head over heels?"
A common way to describe all-encompassing love, who said it first?
Your heart lub-dubs when you hear their name.
You swoon over their ever word.
You can think of nothing and no-one else.
Your tummy feels topsy-turvy every time they’re around.
You turn into a pile of goo when they look at you.
You are smitten. In love. And positively, “Head over heels.”
But why do we say head over heels, when our heads are literally always over our heels?
SAYING: Head Over Heels
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
“I’m so excited to see him, I feel like I’m going to lose my mind. I’ve fallen head over heels!”
WHY WE SAY IT:
The first known person to use this phrase was Gaius Valerius Catallus, a Roman poet known for works of love and hatred in 87-54 BC (dang, that’s old!) His was expressed in latin, “per caputque pedesque.” In 1771, in The Contemplative Man by Herbert Lawrence he described a kick in the head so intense it sent the other person “head over heels.” I wonder if that’s where the inspiration for “Ain’t that a Kick in the Head” love song by Dean Martin.
I still think it should be heels over head!
Either way, being head over heels does feel like going somersaulting down a mountain in excitement, adoration, youth, love, freedom and all-out joy. And as one topples and rumbles and tumbles into love, somehow the meaning of life is discovered.
Sources: IdiomOrigins.org, The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers, ChatGPT, and Transparent Language