Ondersteboven

upside down, wrong side up, overturned
[adverb]
[on-der-ste-bo-ven] 

‘Ondersteboven’ is composed of ‘onderste’ and ‘boven’ and is short for ‘het onderste boven’: the bottom(most) part up. It’s also common to say that something ‘is/ligt op zijn kop’ (head/top down).

A common expression that I’d like to highlight is: ‘ergens ondersteboven van zijn’: to be very upset about something. The opposite ‘ik ben er niet (echt) ondersteboven van’ however, is used to say that you are ‘not at all that impressed’. See the Examples below.

Examples:
“De burgemeester van Lech was ondersteboven van het nieuws dat Prins Friso onder een lawine terecht was gekomen.” 
(“The mayor of Lech was very upset by the news that Prince Friso was buried by an avalanche.” In Dutch it’s common to say ‘terechtkomen onder’: to end up under/beneath…)

“Waarom valt een boterham altijd ondersteboven, dus met de belegde kant naar beneden, op de grond?” 
(“Why does a slice of bread always fall on the floor upside down, you know with the topped side facing down?”)

“Hij doet net of hij Arabisch kan lezen… maar kijk: hij houdt het boek ondersteboven!” 
(“Look at him, pretending he can read Arabic… but look: he’s holding the book upside down!”)

“Iedereen doet altijd of Uma Thurman zo’n lekker ding is, maar ik ben niet echt ondersteboven van haar.” 
(“Everybody’s always acting as if Uma Thurman is such a hot babe, but she doesn’t impress me much I have to say.”)

“Na de botsing lagen beide auto’s ondersteboven in de aangrenzende sloot; gelukkig is iedereen ongedeerd tevoorschijn gekomen.” 
(“After the collision both cars were upside down in the bordering ditch; fortunately everybody came out unharmed.” Lit.: “…both cars were lying upside down… everybody appeared unharmed.” The verb ‘to appear’ can be translated as ‘verschijnen’ (to appear in general) or ‘tevoorschijn komen’ (to appear after having been obstructed from view).).

Related words:
– Binnenstebuiten: inside out, wrong side out [adverb].
– Achterstevoren: backwards, back-to-front [adverb].
– Op zijn kop: upside down (lit. ‘head down’) [adverbial adjunct]. Often used the same way as ‘ondersteboven’.

Example:
– “Er komt geen ketchup uit!” – “Ok… Hou de fles dan wat langer op zijn kop!”
(“The ketchup doesn’t come out!” – “Alright… So hold the bottle upside down a bit longer!”)

– Aangeslagen: affected, shaken [adjective].
– Onder: below, at the bottom, underneath, downstairs [adverb].
– Onderst: bottom(most) [adjective]. Typically only used with definite articles ‘de’ or ‘het’, e.g. ‘de onderste plank’, ‘het onderste vel’.
– Onderste: the bottommost part [noun] [het onderste, <no plural>].
Boven: above, up, at the top, upstairs [adverb].