To reverse or cancel an official decision, law, or established practice. It can also mean to physically turn something upside down or cause something to fall over.
From Middle English, combining 'over' (above, beyond) and 'turn' from Old English 'tyrnan'. Originally meant physical turning over, but by the 14th century developed the metaphorical sense of reversing decisions or overruling authority.
The word perfectly captures how legal and social change works - just like flipping a table disrupts everything on it, overturning a law or precedent disrupts the entire system built upon it. That's why legal overturns are so consequential and controversial!
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