Heads up!

Please define!

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Marvin D.
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Heads up!

Post by Marvin D. »

Heads up!
Can you define why on earth people yell for you to lift your head up when a branch is heading your way? :-s Do they intentionally plan on getting you hurt? Why not yell,
Heads down!
The person who I deem the best definition will receive 50 cents from me. You have 10 days for an answer. So now you can earn a bit of money on the Hillingdale Haven! :lol:
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Amethystic
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Post by Amethystic »

What do you mean by definition?
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Marvin D.
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Post by Marvin D. »

I mean, define the reason why people say "Heads up!" instead of just telling you what's the matter/what's gonna hit you.
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Amethystic
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Post by Amethystic »

Well you see, several hundred years ago it was commonplace for children to be born with a condition called craniodisconnectivity, or the head loss sickness. These people could remove their heads and even swap them around amongst themselves with no ill effects, much to the disgust of the people around them.

They loved to make use of this talent: someone had lost something in the well? They would lower their head down into the water and grab the missing item with their teeth. Invading forces? What better to scare an enemy than a headless horseman? Yes, people with the head loss sickness were both disturbing and useful.

The reason the phrase "Heads up!" became so prevelent was because of the sufferers of the sickness would take their heads off in a panic whenever something was about to hit them in the head, usually holding their heads several inches up in the air and letting it hang there above their necks.

It soon became commonplace to shout "Heads up!" when there was a danger of being hit by a flying object--even among people who didn't have the sickness. As the sickness gradually became less and less common (now only being found on the small islet of Decapita) the phrase remained contantly in use, but the origin of the phrase was lost.

And that is where the phrase "Heads up!" came from. :yes:
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TigerintheShadows
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Post by TigerintheShadows »

Wow.

Actually, it was probably more because when one's head is up, they're more alert. The phrase "Heads up!" probably came to be because of this reason. For example, say that you're like me and you've done something stupid like staying up all night on a Tuesday night when you know good and well you have church the next evening. When you do wind up dozing off in the middle of the service like a total moron, you're suddenly awakened. When this happens, generally, your head comes up and your body snaps into a more normal position instead of being curled up on the pew.

Or you could also have woken up at 5:45 in the morning, gone to straighten your hair, realized you needed to get your makeup bag into the bathroom as well, and then your sleepy, zombie-like self accidentally got your foot caught in the straightener's wire and then the straightener fell and your hand got in between the two four-hundred-fifty degree plates and they clamped down on it and you were left screaming and pouring ice water on your hand. Oh, yeah. I really needed a head's up this morning.
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Post by J-man »

The saying, "heads up", is usually said when something is coming in your direction (usually from overhead, but not always). The idea is to get your attention and get you to look around. The reason it's "up", as opposed to "down", is so you can look around and figure out what danger you are in. If your head is down, you have more of a chance of getting hit than if you lift your head and know where to go to get out of danger. Ignorance is not always bliss. ;)
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Marvin D.
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Post by Marvin D. »

Tigerintheshadows said,
Actually, it was probably more because when one's head is up, they're more alert.
.
I like that one! =D>
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Post by Oba-rai »

I'm not even going to try to be witty, but borrow from the Japanese poetry.

"Ho - heads up," they say
in effort to keep you from harm
so don't question it.

"Ho, heads down," they say
when spirits, broken and weak
cannot see through eyes.

so heads up, I say
decapitation not pretty.
watch out for winged blades.
they may be copper,
annoying little coins! but,
they might be giants.
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Marvin D.
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Post by Marvin D. »

OK, it's time for the winners! Drum roll, please....
1st prize goes to Tigerintheshadow, and 2nd prize for Amethystic for making one that is totally hilarious. Check your inbox!
"I still see Marvin as a newbie that is just as cool as an oldie." --snubs

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Post by Fang-wa »

Aww..I was going to write one. :( Oh well, I will anyway. O:)

The phrase came from France around the time of the French Revolution, slightly before; a time of chaos and crime. There was this one particularly daring crook who would lower himself from ropes tied to the second floor of large mansions and would so relieve people of their valuables, making use of the fact that people rarely venture their eyes skyward. His name was "La Heuduppe" or "He is above you", because that is what people generally cried when they saw their friends getting robbed.
When Benjamin Franklin went over to negotiate with the French king for supplies for the American Revolution, La Heuduppe attempted to relieve him of some of his possessions (he was stopped quite violently by an invention of Franklin's, but that's another story). As a result, the French king told Franklin of the legend behind this thief (it was mostly a national secret, as the Frenchmen were slightly embarrassed to admit to foreigners of their successful, nationally-known thief). The king asked Franklin not to repeat the story to anyone, which he quickly agreed to (this kindness was one of the deciding factors in the French giving us aid in our Revolution).
Upon his return, however, Benjamin Franklin paraphrased the thief's name and made it into a new phrase "Heads up".

:yes:
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Marvin D.
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Post by Marvin D. »

Very intresting IN. People can keep writing their own answers, but it will not be in the contest.
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Post by Smaug the Dragon »

There's a simple explanation for that. You'll notice that when bent over, the warning 'heads down!' is rather hard to comprehend, being as it is upside-down. And the phrase '!umop spaey' doesn't communicate much. So it became instead 'heads umop', or inverted 'spaey down'. Which gets the important message across. Of course, over time the somewhat unwieldy 'umop' was abbreviated to 'up'.

heads up, or dn?
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Post by 31899 »

The Elves used it to play tricks on unsuspecting Humans. The Elves also used the phrase to harass Dwarfs, and other phrases like: "Would the conductor of the Dwarf choir please stand up."

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