Meaning
Extremely happy and delighted. British in flavour though now widely understood elsewhere, it typically appears in the construction 'to be over the moon (about something)' and is noticeably stronger than merely being pleased. Warm and conversational; can sound breezy or clichéd in formal writing. Regional use: British English origin; now General English.
Origin
The earliest known use in something like the modern sense is the Irish playwright Charles Molloy's 1718 comedy The Coquet, or, The English Chevalier: 'Tis he! I know him now: I shall jump over the Moon for Joy!'. Word Histories observes that all the early instances are by Irish writers, so the metaphor in its delighted sense may have originated in Ireland; an earlier echo in Fletcher's The Humorous Lieutenant (c. 1619) actually carried the opposite meaning. The image was then kept alive by the nursery rhyme 'High Diddle Diddle', printed in Mother Goose's Melody, dated circa 1760 by the Phrase Finder and to about 1780-81 by Word Histories, in which the cow jumped over the moon. The Phrase Finder adds that the phrase's modern British popularity owes much to televised football managers' post-match clichés, lampooned by Private Eye's Colemanballs column from the 1970s.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- absolutely over the moon
- be over the moon
- jump over the moon
- over the moon about something
Usage Examples
- When the adoption was approved, the whole family was over the moon.
- She was over the moon about winning the research grant.
- He has been over the moon since the exam results came through.