Can't make head nor tail of something

Origin

Imagine trying to make sense of a tangled mess, a riddle, or a speech so convoluted that you couldn't tell its beginning from its end, its top from its bottom. This is the simple yet powerful image behind "can't make head nor tail of something." Emerging in the English language by the 17th century, the phrase plays on the most basic identifiers of any object: its distinct ends. Whether picturing a coin with its "head" and "tail" sides, or an animal where the head leads and the tail follows, the inability to distinguish these fundamental points signifies a total failure to orient oneself or grasp any meaning. What began as a vivid description of utter confusion quickly became a common idiom for when something—be it instructions, an argument, or a piece of writing—is completely incomprehensible.