"Tail over teakettle" is one of several similar phrases to describe a tumble or fall. But where/how did this originate? A few web searches give me pages where people use the phrase, and one of the results included a page from Oxford Reference for Green's Dictionary of Slang (but more information requires a subscription). I've been unsuccessful in discovering the etymology of the phrase, though.
Learn English – Origin of “tail over teakettle”
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There's this from William Safire in The New York Times, writing about the phrase's origin:
'Ch'i 'hu nan hsia pei' goes the Chinese proverb, translated in 1875 as 'He who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount.' The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs interprets the old Asian metaphor as 'Once a dangerous or troublesome venture is begun, the safest course is to carry it through to the end.'
The earliest use of the phrase in print that I can find is from 1829 in a Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava, in the Year 1827:
This lends credence to the Chinese-origin theory.
The first instance I can find is in an 1833 speech by Samuel P. Carson in the U. S. House of Representatives, cited in Niles' Weekly Register. It may have been commonly used in conversation before that, but Carson seems to have been the first person to use it in an ink-worthy setting.
I've always been of two minds as to the intended meaning of "rough", which could mean either brutal or rudimentary:
- rough shoes (e.g. baseball spikes) might protect the walker's feet at the expense of what is walked on , or
- rough shoes (e.g. zoris) might indicate that the walker is so confident that what's being walked on is harmless/helpless that no real foot protection is necessary.
I suspect it's the former, but I can see it either way.
Either way, it expresses indifference - but what kind?
Best Answer
According to The Phrase Finder, it is a variation of ass end over teakettle and actually Ngran shows that its usage started a few years later. They are both variations ( other variations exit ) from the well-established expression 'head over heels'. 'Tail is probably used with reference to previous versions which used 'ass or butt.'