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#119189 01/08/04 10:14 PM
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This may have been posted here before. Not sure how old it is:

About up.

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meaning 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 waken 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 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 (or if it is a red Corvette, a special girl fixes it UP).
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 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 of the proper uses of UP, look UP the word in the dictionary. In a desk size dictionary, UP takes UP almost 1/4th the page and definitions add UP to about thirty.
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 doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so I'll shut UP

Eh, what's up doc?!




#119190 01/08/04 10:22 PM
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...and then there is *our own special interpretation of 'up'...

"Hey, sjmaxq, how's the weather way up under? Time to flip over before you burn up."


#119191 01/09/04 12:20 AM
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Then, of course, there is the UP of Michigan



#119192 01/09/04 12:54 AM
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In many instances the use of 'up' indicates that an action has gone to completion, or at least approached it.


#119193 01/09/04 01:08 AM
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And your homework, class, is to write a similar piece about any of the other prepositions commonly used in phrasal verbs.

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#119194 01/09/04 01:24 AM
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you so down, Bingley.





formerly known as etaoin...
#119195 01/09/04 01:31 AM
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And we used to say "fix me up" or "fix us up" when we wanted a friend or somebody to help us get to know a young lady.

And, yep, *our own Upunder (ahem), comes to mind.

But why has "downer" endured from the early drug culture, becoming a part of the language, and "upper" fallen by the wayside?

"Up, up, and away!.."




#119196 01/09/04 02:09 AM
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It also seems that when "up" is used in the phrasal verb form, it is generally (but not always) superfluous to the action being taken (e.g., open/close up the store). I'm not sure what purpose "up" serves in those cases.


#119197 01/09/04 02:19 AM
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Der Quibblemeister says you could close the store and yet
still be in it. But when you "close up" the store, you lock it and go home.


#119198 01/09/04 02:20 AM
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to disambiguate the expression open/close the store perhaps? Opening a store could refer to its first establishment rather than the diurnal round.

Bingley


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