Headstander

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who stands on their head for physical exercise or as a balancing act; an individual who performs a yoga pose involving inversion by balancing on the head; someone who supports their body inverted on the head, often for fitness or performance purposes
2. An individual balancing upright on the crown of their head for gymnastics or yoga practice; a practitioner of a head-supported inverted stance used for strength and balance; a person who assumes a position where the head bears the body's weight in an upright fashion
3. One who maintains an inverted posture by resting weight on the head, commonly for athletic or meditative practice; a participant in physical activities that involve balancing the body upside down supported by the head; a person executing a position requiring balance and strength by standing on the head rather than the feet

Etymology: A headstander is, quite literally, someone who stands on their head, but the word is also an unusually literal bit of English. It is built from "head" and "stander", and the "stander" half comes from the way certain birds and swimmers hold their bodies. The etymology points to a habit of swimming at roughly a 45-degree angle with the head pointed downwards, as if the swimmer were standing on their head in the water. The word therefore describes a posture first and an acrobatic skill second. The image comes from water rather than from the gym: a swimmer diving head-first and angled steeply enough to look upended.

Synonyms: headstand practitioner