Overhead

Part of speech: adjective, adverb, noun

Pronunciation: /ˈəʊvəˌhɛd/

Definitions

1. Located above one's head or relating to the ongoing costs required to operate a business
2. Positioned in a direction above something or concerning the expenses associated with maintaining an enterprise
3. Situated above the level of one’s head or pertaining to the financial costs incurred for running a company

Etymology: Before "overhead" meant anything about the sky or a ceiling, it was a compound of "over" and "head" used as an adverb meaning "above the head," as in Old English "oferhēafod." The German "überhaupt," meaning "at all" or "in general," is a close cousin: both come from the same idea of something held above and beyond the rest. The noun and adjective senses grew out of that adverb. English speakers began using it for whatever hangs or passes above one's head, and from there for expenses that sit above the cost of the actual work, such as rent and utilities for a business. The word has a second, more recent life. Its abbreviated use for the overhead projector, the machine that throws transparencies onto a screen, led to a back-formation: people started calling the transparencies themselves "overheads," and the projector became simply "overhead" in everyday speech.

Synonyms: above, aloft, upward

Antonyms: below, under, beneath