Up!............

[427 S/O]

Lovers of the English language might enjoy this. It is yet another example of why people learning English have trouble with the language. Learning the nuances of English makes it a difficult language. (But then, that's probably true of many languages.)



There is a two-letter word in English that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.' It is listed in the dictionary as being used as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].


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 and we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has a 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 UPabout UP !

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP , look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 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 is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.

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



Don't screw up. Send this on to everyone you look up in your address book.
Now I'll shut up.

[Ron61]

Perry,

Though not used in as many ways the word To, Too, and Two can be very confusing to people trying to learn English.

Ron

[Bobcat]

Is must be one of those difficult words also as Bill Clinton kept saying it depends on what the definition of is .. is .

Bob

[Buzz]

It's all actually quite simple if one focuses on the base definition of the word. "Up" represents an ascension or an increase in altitude, movement or indication towards a higher value - escalation from bottom towards the top or from low to high. That higher value can be anything from position in a line or list to level of consciousness to intensity of the shine on a polished finish.

Therefore, anything that represents escalation or amplification from a lower to a higher state is covered by that little two letter word. Shine up, grow up, wake up, dig up, etc, etc.

Even the less obvious examples make sense. "up for election" implies moving to the front or "top" of a list as does a topic coming "up" for discussion. "Dressed up" is simply a higher state of dress than being less formally dressed or "dressed down." Speaking "up" is an increase or going up in volume and you wake up simply because you initially lay "down" to sleep. A person is "screwed up" when their level of screwedness is perceived to be higher than that of the person describing them as such.

At the risk of sounding all uppity it all seems quite obvious with a bit of thought. Didn't even have to look it up. I don't mean to mess up the spirit of the thread by coming up with all this, but when topics like this pop up, I get my hopes up that it will blossom into an interesting discussion, and I'm always up for that. Given the charged-up atmosphere in the lounge lately, though, I realize this could all blow up into another silly row, but if it were up to me we'd all just lighten up and try to get along.

[427 S/O]

he he.........

[Dan40]

Wasup?!!

[Rick Parker]

And as most pissed off wives would say, "UP Yours!"

[Buzz]

Most of the pissed off wives I've met over the years generally tend to have a more...er...ahem...neighborly (yea, that's the word) disposition.

[Rick Parker]

Maybe you're meet'n them after they tell the husband off?

[Buzz]

yUP - maybe that's it.