Just realized that "upside down" means "the up side is down", making it upside down

Binette@lemmy.ml to Showerthoughts@lemmy.world – 334 points –
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Shhh! Nobody tell them about "inside out."

Why isn’t it outside in?

It could be to do with something called “ablaut reduplication”. Very basically English has a - kind of - untaught sound order that native speakers inherently apply to the language. Wikipedia will have an article to explain it better. Specifically the vowel order I-A-O. A great example is the phrase “Bish bash bosh” which is getting coverage recently. (One notable exception is “shit, shower, shave” but that is probably down to the chronology of the actions.)