Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Topsy-turvy

Well, I just did something I haven't done before: Wrote the VERY LAST CHAPTER of the next book in my Silver Rush series, even though I'm only a tad over halfway through the draft.

I'm into experimenting with different approaches to writing, because... why not?... but still.

After writing THE END (in nice big capital letters), I thought to myself, "This is sure a topsy-turvy way to go about it."

Of course, my second thought was (you can guess, I'm sure):

"Topsy-turvy. Hmmmm. How (and when) did that arrive on the slang scene? It sounds oooold."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology: The Origins of American English Words by Robert K. Barnhart has this to say (and yep, topsy-turvy dates back quite a bit):

topsy-turvy adverb. (1528) topsy-tervy in utter confusion; (1530) topsy-tirvy upside down; probably formed from tops (plural of TOP, highest point) + obsolete terve, tirve turn upside down, topple over, from Middle English terven (about 1400), from Proto-Germanic terbanan

The Online Etymology Dictionary also gets into the act (with an earlier date and additional information in bold):

1520s, "but prob. in popular use from an earlier period" [OED]; compare top over terve "to fall over" (mid-15c.); likely from tops, plural of top "highest point" + obsolete terve "turn upside down, topple over," from Old English tearflian "to roll over, overturn," from Proto-Germanic terbanan (source also of Old High German zerben "to turn round"). Century Dictionary calls it "A word which, owing to its popular nature, its alliterative type, and to ignorance of its origin, leading to various perversions made to suggest some plausible origin, has undergone, besides the usual variations of spelling, extraordinary modifications of form." It lists 31 variations. As an adjective from 1610s.

Ah-HA! What is this Century Dictionary whereof they speak? I go a-looking around and... oh goody! It's another 19th-century dictionary free to download from Google! So, if you want to go all agog at the page-plus information on topsy-turvy (from topsy-terve to topsytervyfy), be my guest. As for me, I better get back to drafting the muddle in the middle of my next Silver Rush story...

Something's not quite right here...
Strobridge & Co. Lith. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons