Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. upside down, topsy-turvy, back-to-front.

1539		R. Taverner (trans.) Proverbes or Adages by Erasmus (1569) 58: Ye set the cart before the horse. [...] cleane contrarily, and arsy-versy as they say .
1542		Udall (trans.) Erasmus’ Apophthegms (1564) Bk I 6: Many persons doe arsee versee, in that thei take the losse of a little money, more greuously at the harte, then the losse of a frende.
c.1551		Tom Tyler and his Wife (1661) in Farmer (1908) 43: She looked very arsy-versy at her first coming in.
1577		Holinshed Chronicles (Ireland) II 26/2: The estate of that flourishing towne was turned arsie versie, topside the other waie.
1605		Marston Dutch Curtezan III iv: Lord these boyes doe things arsie varsie.
1607		in Estienne et al World of Wonders 44: Both he and his fellowes deale with the Latin as they thinke good, vsing words arsie-versie.
1614		Davies of Hereford Eclogue Between yong Willy and old Wernocke 19: Willy, why lig’st thou (man) so wo-be-gon? [...] Is some conteck ’twixt thy loue and thee? Or, else some loue-warke arsie-varsie tane?
1623		Webster Devil’s Law-Case IV ii: May it please the Court, I am but a yong thing, And was drawne arsie varsie into the businesse.
1647		J. Cleveland Moderate Intelligencer 11: The world’s turn’d arsey varsey, upside downe.
1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 43: This little lecher was always groping his nurses and governesses, upside down, arsiversy, topsiturvy, harri bourriquet.
a.1661		‘Bum-Fodder’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 56: ’Tis a pittifull passe you men of the Sword / Have brought yourselves to, that the Rump’s your Lord, / And Arsie Versie must be the word.
1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 349: We have in our language many the like [...] arsy versy, kim kam, hub bub, crawly mauly.
1683		J.P.M.D. Mystic Divinity 24: I fai the whol frame of the World [...] to circumgyrate, to wheel, whirl and turn round about in a Topsi-Turvi (excuse the expression) as if everi man went the wrong waie to work; All arsi-varsi.
1693		‘Jenny Cromwells Complaint against Sodomy’ Harleian Mss. 73I5.226: Till you came in and with your Reformation, / Turn’d all things Arsy Versy in the nation.
1731		Glass Window, or, Bog-house Miscellany B2: Dean's Yard, Westminster, in Charcoal, on a Wall, a Verse to be read upwards or downwards or arsey-versey the same.
1811		Norfolk Chron. 20 July 4/3: Definitions of words, phrases, etc. which Dr Johnson and other learned lexicographers have thought beneath their notice [...] Topsey-turvey, Arsey-versy, An inversion of capitals and fundamentals.
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 36: †arsie-versie. upside down.
1834		Marryat Peter Simple (1911) 293: You observe, Terence, that I just said everything contrary and arce versa, as they call it.
1856		P. Thompson Hist. and Antiquities Boston 698: Arsy varsy. — Heels over-head; wrong end forward. ‘Vice-vercy’.
1873		Derbyshire Times 26 July 5/2: Arsey-Varsey. Head over heels (derived from the Fr. ‘à renverse à revers’.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) XI 2198: We laid pell mell on the bed together, topsy-turby, — arsy-versy, and any how and in all sorts of ways.
1896		G.F. Northall Warwickshire Word-Book 12: Arsy-versy. Topsy-turvy, upside down.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 89: It had an arsy-versy look about it to him.
1984		I. Doig Eng. Creek 247: All his haystacks are gonna tip assy-turvy before winter.

2. head-over-heels; usu. in phr. fall arsey-varsey, fall head-over-heels.

1692		J. Dunton Postboy Robb’d 173: Go to, (quoth River) let us not enter Rome, that is, not into a Discourse of arsey-versey Love [F&H].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 26: ass over teakettle. Upside down, head over heels; arse over turkey in British English, or arsy varsy.

3. contrary, perverse, preposterous.

1637		R. Brome Eng. Moor III ii: It is the Arsivarsiest Aufe that ever crept into the world.
1728		in Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: arsy-versey, topsy-turvy, preposterously, perversely without order.