'upheaval' originates from English, formed from the prefix 'up-' (Old English 'up') + the verb 'heave' (Old English 'hebban'/'hebban' meaning 'to lift') with the noun-forming suffix '-al'.

'upheaval' developed from the verb 'upheave' (to heave up), which combined 'up' + 'heave'; the noun form 'upheaval' then emerged to denote the act/result of upheaving and later the figurative sense of major disruption.

Initially, it referred mainly to a physical lifting or rising (a literal upheaval of earth); over time it evolved to include the current broader meaning of major disruptive change in social, political, or organizational contexts.