OT: More About English

Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/25/2006, 7:58 AM

Based on the previous thread about grammar, you lovers of the English language might enjoy this. There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends. We use flowers to brighten UP a room. We polish UP the silver. We warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP old cars.

At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, the definition takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it's clouding UP. When it rains, it wets everything and often messes things UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP and the sun dries UP the water.

I could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so it's time to shut UP.

Oh... one more thing...

What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?

U - P

Comments

DGrob wrote on 2/25/2006, 8:05 AM

OK, I'll start. This is goin'ta screw up my whole day. I feel like I'm gonna upchuck. Darryl

David Jimerson wrote on 2/25/2006, 8:41 AM

Don't pretty much all of those meanings refer to raising the level of something? Brightness, spirits, consciousness . . . ?

JJKizak wrote on 2/25/2006, 8:59 AM

1000 years from now when those anthropologists are sifting through all of our garbage and they find this thread they will remark " what the hell were they talking about", "this can't be the English language." "It must have been a derivative that we are unaware of." "Lets run this --up--down--over-- to analysis right away."

JJK

John_Cline wrote on 2/25/2006, 9:03 AM

Uh, Jay, it's "grammar" not "grammer." Grammer probably means something else altogether, but heck if I know what that might be. :)

John

Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/25/2006, 9:13 AM

Thanks, John. I knew that! But what my brain knows and what my fingers type are all too often two different things.

Like I said in the other thread, I'm nearly always going back and correcting things.

AlanC wrote on 2/25/2006, 9:42 AM

Jay, you should have continued this in the 'Pet Peeve' thread.

The way that thread was going your thread would have been relevant.

And it would help get it UP to 200.

By the way, I open my eyes before I P in the morning, though my wife may not agree :~)

Alan

johnmeyer wrote on 2/25/2006, 10:23 AM

For those of us from the Midwest, it's also the Upper Peninsula (of Michigan).

Lili wrote on 2/25/2006, 11:34 AM

and as Bugs Bunny would say, 'What's up doc?"

Serena wrote on 2/25/2006, 10:49 PM

Grammer is the mother of one of your parents.

MarkWWW wrote on 2/26/2006, 4:35 AM

This reminds me of one of my favourite differences between the way English has developed in the American flavor and the British flavour - the use of prepositions.

In the American form of English there seem to be a rather greater use of prepositions. For example, in the UK we might say "I'll check it" whereas in the US someone might say "I'll check it out", "I'll check on it" or even "I'll check up on it". This seems to be an almost universal pattern - an American expression will almost always use as many or more prepositions as the correspondoing British version.

I can only think of one counterexample to this trend, i.e. an occasion when the American version uses fewer prepositions than the British equivalent and that is the expression "pissed" meaning annoyed which in British English is rendered as "pissed off". (There is a British expression "pissed" but it means drunk, not annoyed.)

Mark

busterkeaton wrote on 2/26/2006, 11:54 AM

I believe the word with the meanings is set. I remember it has over a hundred meanings.

Actually way more than that according to the OED. That probably includes a lot of archaic definitions.

Also I think a lot of your definitions of UP are the same.