Has Anyone Heard the Expression "Ass over Teakettle"

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Forgive my sin of not Social Distancing last night, but I was with group of friends and I said “Ass over Teakettle” in an anecdote I was telling. I believe it is an expression I picked up from my parents who are from New England.

No one at the gathering had heard that expression, and I have used it for most of my 60 years on Earth. FWIW I live in Missouri, but I grew up in the Northeast (New England and upstate NY)

Ass over Teakettle = Klutzy Fall

Have you heard the expression before, and where did you hear it?

2

I’ve heard it in the past, but not in awhile.

I’m in New York. Don’t recall when I first heard it.

3

Commonly heard expression in western Pennsylvania.

4

I’ve known it for as long as I can remember. Grew up just outside of Boston in the 70s.

5

It’s a euphemism for “ass over tit” which makes a lot more sense.

6

It’s a common phase in New England.

7

I’ve heard it in multiple locations and regions; first time I can recall was up in North Dakota, when I watched a guy fall ‘ass over teakettle’ after slipping off the top rung of his combine’s ladder.

Tripler
Landed safely down in the tall wheat, he did.

8

I’ve heard it, but not often. I’ve heard “ass over apple cart” more.

9

My father would use it, I picked it up from him. I don’t know if he picked it up from where he grew up (Iowa) or perhaps in the Army.

10

I’ve heard it, and also “ass over elbow.”

11

I’ve heard it, but I don’t remember where.

12

It’s a phrase my parents used, but they’ve been dead for decades.

13

Ass over teakettle yes, never heard it as ass over tit.

14

I’ve heard it as “tail over teakettle”, which is the bowdlerized version. On the plus side it gains alliteration!

15

I always heard that as ‘ass over tete’ (tete being French for head.)

16

Yes, but then my Dad is from New Hampshire and I probably got it from him. Another of his, for someone falling repeatedly (as in people passing over an icy spot in the sidewalk, or learning how to ski) was “All asses and elbows.”

17

I’ve heard it, but I’m not sure where I first encountered it. It might have been in the opening paragraphs of Clair Huffaker’s Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian.

Inn any event, it makes more sense than the corresponding expression “Head over Heels”, which is similar supposed to suggest that you’ve been turned upside down – except, in that expression, it describes a person who isn’t upside down. My head is normally over my heels.

18

I’ve heard it; couldn’t say whence. Just a phrase that I know.

19

No idea when or where I first heard it, but it was decades ago – probably back in the '70s.

20

I have not only heard it, I’ve used it.

Mostly because I’m such a klutz.
~VOW