Saying - Turn the world on its ear

[cochonverte]

Need to know the origin of this phrase and its generally accepted meaning.

[Quizmonster]

An early meaning of the phrase 'on one's ear' was 'drunk', presumably on the basis that drunk people often fall down. The idea was that they had turned upside down/topsy-turvy, as it were.
To 'turn the world on its ear' is to have the same sort of dramatic effect. In other words, it suggests you have done something so remarkable that everyone is astonished and forced to see things from a new perspective. For example, if you were to invent a perpetual motion machine, you might be said to have "turned the world pf physics on its ear."