ASK SUE-BELINDA
THERE’S a little word in the dictionary and once you get to thinking about it, it can become quite confusing.
The word is ‘up’ and depending on how much information your dictionary provides, it may have a listing which varies between an explanation of 3-5 lines and one, which like one of our dictionaries, covers many pages.
Pages! I can almost hear some of your voices. You see ‘up’ is a tricky little word. We get dressed – this means that we put on our undergarments and our top garments and are ready to face the day. In some cultures ‘getting dressed’ is inclusive of putting on shoes, but in some it’s not. We all understand the concept of ‘getting dressed’, but what if I were to tell you that I’m getting ‘dressed up’? I wonder if you are conjuring (up) some wonderful images in which I’m dripping with diamonds, tiara is on, high heels and matching handbag … ohh it just goes on. My Nanna, in a time less politically correct, would have described ‘dressed up’ as ‘fox fur and jewels’!
From time to time, that little minx of a word ‘up’ wanders into my mind to cause havoc … Why does someone stir up trouble?
Bakers open up their shops early in the morning, but then close up at night.
When I’m chatting with someone, what causes a topic to come up?
During our long ‘dry’ our trees were throwing leaves to preserve themselves, then the rain came and we found our downpipes were clogged up and we had to open them up to get the water flowing again.
Just when I’d feel myself drifting off to sleep, I’d suddenly ask myself (I learnt very early on in my marriage that asking my lovely bloke word ‘shattering questions of questionable import’ when his boat has already set sail for dreamland was unlikely to be appreciated) why it is that we wake up in the morning?
Yes we use it widely and wildly – we get mixed up, we tidy up, we polish up, we take the car to the mechanic to get it fixed up. We look up words and recipes. Some people put up preserves and pickles. In the days before dishwashers, we’d wash up the dishes then dry up. Since rain has arrived, we’ve observed the skies clouding up.
Why?
Good question! The word ‘up’ is old, very old, not quite as old as dirt, but jolly close. Versions of the word are found in Old English ‘uppe’, Old Frisian ‘upp’, Old High German ‘uf’ and even Proto Indo European ‘upo’ which curiously means ‘under’, ‘over’ and ‘up from under’. It’s the last meaning which underpins many of the expressions in English which use ‘up’. It’s sometimes known as an ‘aspirational word’ – one which takes you from the setting in which you currently exist, to a setting to which you aspire.
Applying this and returning to the example of dressing, ‘dressing up’ signifies an aspiration to betterment – dressing in a better style and quality of clothing, dressing in a manner in which one might be at home in a higher social set or even dressing up as a means of planned social advancement.
‘Up’ is more than aspirational. Sometimes it may designate movement towards something. Imagine that there is a sliding scale where zero represents not being hungry at all and 10 represents a state of being famished. If you get up in the morning, dress, eat breakfast and head to work, then your appetite may be low, perhaps zero, maybe one or two. After an hour of two of working you begin to work up an appetite suggesting that you are advancing along that sliding scale to the point at which you achieve hunger and must stop to eat. This is the same use as is evident in the expression to ‘line up’. We join a queue and move closer and closer to the goal until it is eventually achieved.
It may also mean from one position to a heightened position – to stir up trouble – to take it to a heightened stance. This links back to the ‘over’ meaning found in ancient languages.
Yes, the tiny little word ‘up’ has more meanings and applications in the English language than any other word. Furthermore, it is the one word in our language which may act as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb and a preposition – quite an achievement for two little letters!
If you’ve got a minute up your sleeve, look up ‘up’, check out its many applications before you close up the dictionary once more. It won’t take up a lot of your time and it’s a way of building up your own knowledge. I’ll wrap it up now, but I’ll warn you, when you snuggle in your bed tonight, ‘up’ may just wander into your thoughts and I’m here to tell you, it will keep you up.