Meaning
Too complex or specialised for you to understand, as with a lecture, contract, or joke that simply does not register. A second sense describes taking a matter to someone in authority, bypassing the person it properly belongs to. Neutral in the comprehension sense; the bypass sense usually carries a note of office politics. Regional use: General English.
Origin
Etymonline dates the comprehension sense, 'over (one's) head' meaning beyond one's understanding, to the 1620s; the image is of something passing above the head and so beyond the mind's reach. Modern dictionaries list two further senses: taking a complaint or decision over someone to their superior, and, colloquially in American English, more than one can handle, as when a workload or responsibility is described as over someone's head. Wiktionary's illustrative citation for the bypass sense is as recent as 2005, and no reference checked dates that sense, so its history remains open.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- be over your head
- go over someone's head
- over one's head
- way over my head
Usage Examples
- The physics seminar was so far over my head that I stopped taking notes.
- Most of the legal jargon went over their heads until the lawyer summarised it.
- He went over his manager's head and pitched the idea straight to the board.