With all our talk here about what is a word, Proofreader suggested that I post this discussion (from an email I had received) on "up" that I'd posted on my Blog. I found it fascinating.
quote:
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. 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 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 the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it 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 is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.
September 15, 2008, 03:24
Richard English
According to an interview I heard some time ago with McWhirter, the word "set" (or "sett") had 176 different meanings. I don't know whether "up" beats that.
Richard English
September 15, 2008, 03:32
jerry thomas
I was all set to look that up, Richard, but you beat me to it. If I thought it was a set-up I might get upset.This message has been edited. Last edited by: jerry thomas,
September 15, 2008, 04:02
arnie
"Set" is supposed to be the word with the most definitions in the OED. "Up", though, is composed of only two letters.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
September 15, 2008, 08:03
Richard English
I would think that it is the norm for shorter words to have the most definitions.
Richard English
September 15, 2008, 08:12
BobHale
Certainly if you try to define the meanings of the particles in all those phrasal verbs you'll build an enormous number of definitions for words like "up".
After all what does "up" mean (dictionary style definitions please ) in
get up set up throw up act up wake up take up make up think up drink up bunk up pick up pick up on rip up trip up give up
I may decide to call that a poem.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
September 15, 2008, 08:40
<Proofreader>
quote:
I may decide to call that a poem.
Uh-oh!
September 15, 2008, 11:34
Richard English
quote:
I may decide to call that a poem.
Change your name to Beckett and you'll have it made.
Richard English
September 15, 2008, 11:38
BobHale
Beckett Hale?
Yes, it has a certain ring to it.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
September 15, 2008, 12:44
Richard English
Or even Bob Beckett - more alliterative.
Richard English
September 15, 2008, 15:31
BobHale
Ah yes, but less classy. Bob Becket would never get to be poet laureate but Becket Hale, now there's a man with a chance.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
September 15, 2008, 15:36
jerry thomas
Sir Becket Hale might even qualify for a chair at the Round Table .... (not the oval office)
September 16, 2008, 00:38
Richard English
Lord Beckett of Booze - now there's a title!
Richard English
September 16, 2008, 04:42
Valentine
Maybe Bob à Becket is classy enough?
September 16, 2008, 05:42
<Proofreader>
quote:
à Becket
Think he really wants to go that route?
September 16, 2008, 06:28
Richard English
"Who will rid me of this turbulent Yam Yam?"
Richard English
September 16, 2008, 07:22
arnie
Lord Bob Beckett of Bilston has a good ring to it.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
September 16, 2008, 11:14
BobHale
quote:
Originally posted by Richard English: "Who will rid me of this turbulent Yam Yam?"
Round these parts that's considered tantamount to racism. I demand satisfaction. I'll have my man polish the dueling pistols.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
September 16, 2008, 12:36
<Proofreader>
quote:
"Who will rid me of this turbulent Yam Yam?"
Round here that's sweet potato pie.
September 16, 2008, 13:11
jerry thomas
Those Yam Yam folks in the Black Country say the darnedest things !!
Interesting how "up" vs. "down" can change an idiom.
A BBC radio announcer must have misunderstood the idiom in reporting the recent turmoil in the finacial industry: FNMA, Lehman Brother, Merrill Lynch, AIG. He should have spoken of the shake up in the industry, not the shake down.
September 18, 2008, 12:09
Valentine
Well, perhaps. Shake-down has two meanings for me.
1) Extortion. 2) Weeding out of problems. Like a shake-down cruise of a new ship.
A shake-up isn't exactly right to describe what is happening right now in the financial markets. It isn't merely being re-arranged, it is having real problems identified, and (with luck) solved.
September 18, 2008, 12:16
<Proofreader>
It's obviously a shake-up of the "industry" and a shake-down (in sense one) of the taxpayers.
September 20, 2008, 14:30
tinman
quote:
Originally posted by shufitz: Interesting how "up" vs. "down" can change an idiom.
Yes, for example knock up vs. knock down.
October 23, 2008, 14:23
<Proofreader>
Got an email today which had the entire "Up" discussion from Kalleh in the body. They did add a couple of sentences, which are:
One could go on & on, but I’ll wrap it UP , for now my time is UP, so ....
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
Don’t screw up. Send this on to everyone you look up in your address book.
What is particularly interesting is this is the first time I've ever seen an exclamation point immediately following a colon (after one more thing).
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