Upside down as a turn of speech. What does the expression "upside down" mean? What is the etymology? Use in literature

This phraseological unit has a very interesting origin. The fact is that in Russia, among the people inhabiting the Don region, ordinary people did not say the word "legs", but "torms" or "brakes", "tormas". Therefore, it is not surprising that a stable phraseological unit "upside down" appeared.

It means:

non-standard situation;
unimaginable disorder, chaos.

In those days, people had a clear worldview, according to which light lived above, in the sky, good forces, but below, underground - the dwelling place of dark, evil forces. Therefore, the expression "upside down" in those days did not bode well.

In our time, this expression is kind, warm. Very often they say this to children when they play pranks and throw things around.

As for me, when I hear this expression, astronauts immediately appear to me. In zero gravity, the concept of floor and ceiling is very relative.

Nowadays, very often you can face a situation of chaos and confusion. Probably, no one is immune from such situations. The main thing is not to lose your presence of mind and self-control in such cases.

A synonym for this expression is upside down. What in in this case not surprising at all. Its meaning is similar to that which we are examining in this article.

There is an analogue of the phraseological unit "upside down"- this is .

UP WITH SHUTTERS

adv. qualities - are.

Tipping over your head; somersault.

In an overturned position; upside down.

Ott. transfer Not as it should; in complete disarray.

Used as an inconsistent definition.

A large modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. 2012

Origin story

To understand the meaning of the phraseological unit "upside down", you need to find out how this phrase appeared. Let's turn to history. As often happens, the phraseological unit was formed at the junction of two dialects. In Ryazan, the legs were called "torms", and the Don Cossacks changed this concept into "brakes".

Fairs were popular in Russia. These events were held not only so that the people could exchange the products of their activities. The fairs were also of amusement character. At such events, fist fights were held, people danced, and sometimes even a circus came. And when the acrobats twisted somersaults or somersaulted, people laughed and said: "He's upside down." Gradually, the expression came into use, the speech changed and the words too. And we have already got the reworked expression "upside down."

Meaning

People use phraseological units both in direct and in figurative meaning... What does "upside down" mean? In its direct meaning, the expression is used when someone turns upside down. People around you notice this and then tell others. But this will not be a catch phrase, but a simple statement of fact. Today, in this meaning, the phraseological unit "upside down" is almost impossible to meet. It is very rare to hear it in the villages.

Second use case winged expression enjoys greater popularity. Phraseologism is interpreted as a disorder or disorder. Moreover, it is used both in the literal sense, to describe an uncleaned room, and to describe the illogicality of thoughts, for example, a mess in the head.

Methods of use

The meaning of the phraseological unit "upside down" becomes clear when you consider it with examples. Very often parents say this catch phrase to my children. In the morning, leaving for work, mom leaves the house in perfect order.

Returning in the evening, she finds chaos. The dishes are unwashed, the floors are dirty, the children are grimy, and the furniture is pushed to one corner. Despite the fact that, in essence, nothing was turned upside down, mom will still express her emotions in phraseological units.

The second use of the catch phrase is in its direct meaning. The father can play with the son and turn the boy over in the process. A mother who walks into a room can say: "Stop turning him upside down, it's unhealthy."

Use in literature

To understand how to use one or another phraseological unit, you can refer to examples of use written down on paper.

L. Platonov in his work "The Tale of Vetlugin" writes: "I<...>flying upside down from a branch. " Here the catch phrase is used in its direct meaning. But in V. Rasputin's book “Live and Remember” you can see an example of a figurative use of phraseological units: “Nastena listened to her father-in-law being ruined, and wearily thought: why should I be so worried about some piece of iron if everything has been going upside down for a long time”.

Since it is precisely in its indirect meaning that the expression is found more often, it is these examples that can be found more in the literature. In support of this, we present one more work "Searches and Hopes", created by V. Kaverin. The author writes: “This plan is flying upside down, because everything turns out to be“ wrong and wrong ”on the spot.

Synonyms of phraseological units

To describe the condition upside down, you can use more than one catch phrase. There is a modernized version of this phraseological unit. The phrase "turn upside down" can be heard very often today.

Phraseologism "topsy-turvy" is a synonym for "upside down". This expression is used when the speaker wants to show that something is wrong. It is especially often used when children take up work. Although some adults sometimes manage to excel.

Another synonym for the phraseological unit "upside down" is the expression "the devil himself will break his leg." It is used when a violent disorder is described. Moreover, this can be either an uncleaned room or poorly developed reporting.

Development prospects

People love phraseological units, but like everything else, they have their own lifespan. So the expression "upside down" came instead of "upside down". If phraseological units can still be heard, then only from the older generation. Young people no longer use it.

It is fashionable today to open upside-down houses. There are such museums both in Moscow and in Northern capital our homeland. And young people are happy to enter such buildings to be photographed. But museums are called "House Upside Down". Although "Upside Down House" would sound just as good. But, unfortunately, not even all people already understand the meaning of the expression.

Is it good or bad that speech changes? It is hard to say. It saddens the fact that people forget ancient Russian expressions. But, on the other hand, you need to understand that the tendency to simplify is always present in any language. People don't like complicated constructions and bulky phrases. Therefore, the phraseological unit "upside down" is dying, and its days are numbered.

But as long as the synonyms are alive, there is no point in being sad. Russian is the 6th most widely spoken language in the world. It is spoken by millions of people. And what cannot but rejoice, the government is more and more concerned about the problems of the language every year. So let's hope that in 100 years at least 50% of the established phraseological units will not sink into oblivion.

SHUMP UP (SIMPLE)

1) somersault, over the head, upside down; 2) upside down, in complete disarray. The etymology is obscured. The word tormashki can go back to the verb to shake, that is, "pull, turn over". It is also assumed that tormashki comes from the dialectal torma - "legs". According to another hypothesis, the word tormashki is associated with the word brake (old tormas). Tormas used to be called iron strips under the runner of a sled, which were used to make the sled roll less (See V. I. Dal. Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language. M., 1998). The expression upside down could refer to a sled overturned on ice or in the snow.

Handbook of phraseology. 2012

The meaning of the phraseological unit "upside down"

So, in more detail. Phraseologism "upside down" has several interpretations. Which ones?

The first means that some thing or person is in an upside down position. Inverted. You can be, fly, fall or turn upside down. The meaning of a phraseological unit can also be interpreted as the "collapse" of something.

And that's not it. Changing the course of events is another meaning of the phraseological unit "upside down". That is, when you were planning something, and it suddenly fell through. This idiom also means disorder and chaos.

Origin

The point of view of the origin of this idiom differs from one researcher to another. Since "upside down" is a phraseological union, that is, a fixed combination that cannot be understood and imagined without knowing its history, one must turn to etymology.

In Russia "tormashki" is a colloquial word. It could be heard in the dialects of the inhabitants of modern Ryazan and on the Don.

In those days, this word was called legs. In the Ryazan dialect the word "torms" existed for the designation of legs, and in the Don dialect people called them "tormans".

According to another version, the phraseological unit denoted an inverted sleigh, the brakes of which were called "brakes". This option is consonant with the word "tormashki".

The first version of the origin is the most popular. "Tormas" and "braked" are closer to "tormas" than "tormas".

In addition, at that time, the picture of the world of people still divided "up" and "down". "Top" symbolized the sun, air, sky. And in a person - a head. "Bottom" was water, earth, and human feet. Man himself felt himself in the middle: he was above water and earth, but below the sky.

The top was associated with something good, great, heavenly. The bottom, on the contrary, showed darkness, poverty. The meaning of the phraseological unit "upside down" is the sowing of chaos and disorder.