adv. and a. Obs. in polite use. Also arse-, arsie-versie, arsee-versee, arsy-varsy, etc. [f. ARSE sb. + L. versus, pa. pple. of vertĕre to turn, assimilated to reduplicated compounds like hurly-burly, etc.]
A. adv. Backside foremost, upside-down, contrariwise; perversely, preposterously.
1539. Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 62. Ye set the cart before the horse … cleane contrarily and arsy versy as they say.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., II. 26/2. The estate of that flourishing towne was turned arsie versie, topside the otherwaie.
1683. E. Hooker, Pref. Pordage’s Myst. Div., 24. As if everi man went the wrong waie to work; All Arsi-varsi.
1721. Bailey, Arsy-versy.
1855. Whitby Gloss., Arsy-varsy, head over heels, vice-versa.
B. adj. Contrary, perverse, preposterous.
1659. Brome, Eng. Moor, III. ii. It is the Arsivarsiest Aufe that ever crept into the world.
1692. Dunton, Postboy Robb’d (1706), 173. Go to, let us not enter Rome, that is, not into a Discourse of Arsey-versey Love.
