This phrase is American in origin and use and is rarely used outside of the nation and its people. It's used in the form of a warning, almost like the word "four" is yelled when a golf ball goes rogue. A second use is in the form of leadership - at the head of the whole organization or "heads up the whole organization." And a final popular use for the phrase is centered around emotion - when someone is down due to losing or whatever we will say "Hey, heads up - it's not over yet" or something similar. (source)
There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.
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