arsy-versyとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

Alteration of arsa versa, a blend of an alteration of arse + vice versa, modeled on vicey versey.

副詞

arsy versy (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic, Britain, vulgar) Tumbling upside down; head over heels; backwards.
   • 1548, Nicholas Udall (translator), The Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the Newe Testamente, London: Edward Whitchurch, Volume 1, Luke 16,^[1]

     Who would not haue iudged that same ryche man to haue been a perfecte exaumple and paterne of most welthie and happy state: and this poore Lazare man to be a paterne of vtter miserie? But felicitie is in nowyse to be measured by such thinges as fortune geueth to men in this lyfe. But in the matter that we nowe speake of, altogether was sodainly turned in and out clene arsie versy.

   • 1612, Benvenuto, The Passenger of Benvenuto:

     Dost thou not know that from the beginning the world goes arsie-versie.