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What's it with up?
5

What's it with up?

What's it with up?

(OP)
UP    UP    UP?
What's it with up?

Up used to be a direction-the opposite of down, the direction of gravity force.

Is "open up" more open than open? I don't think so.
"He is going to open up a business." You have heard that?
He really is going to open [start] a business.
'Open the door' conveys a message, a meaning. It is clear and not ambiguous.
"Open up" makes as much sense as "open down".

There is a term which really grinds me, and that is "listen up". Absolute nonsense!!! Doubletalk and gobbledegook!!! I really don't know how to 'listen up'.
If you mean 'pay attention', or 'listen carefully', say so.

There appear to be certain people who are impelled to say 'up' when there is no good reason to say it. They are driven to say 'up'. They can't help themselves. They have little or no will power.

THE CHALLENGE is to say 'open' without saying up. Can you do it?
        
( up is a filler, a noise, something to extend the conversation,
something to make you appear hip, sophisticated, and suave,
groovy, in-the-know, moderne, cool, very smart.
 It does not communicate an intelligent meaning.)
 
  SILLY TALK                    GOOD TALK
mix up                        mix
gather up                    gather
wrap up                    end, complete, finish
sand up, paint up                sand, paint [Norm says this, and more]
cook up                        cook
wire up (from my favorite TV home show),    wire
finish up                    finish, complete, end

add up                        add
If you tell someone to add up some numbers,
                    do they? NO. They start at the top and add down.
                    So do I. Don't you?
jimbo  


Buy a dictionary, keep it nearby and USE it. Webster's New World Dictionary of American English is recommended, and Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

RE: What's it with up?

Notice that most of the words that you associate the unneeded use of "up" with are monosyllabic.

Many people appear to be unsatisfied by speaking only a single syllable, so something else gets tacked on to produce a more satisfying oratory experience.

RE: What's it with up?

What's up with that?

RE: What's it with up?

does getting "dressed up" differ in meaning from simply getting "dressed?"  It's certainly different than getting "dressed down."  The etymology may be related.

RE: What's it with up?

Silly talk:  throw up
Good talk:  Hurl

RE: What's it with up?

Interesting point, jimbo!

I just consulted my dictionary (Macquarie), and it lists no less than 63 uses of the word "up" under the main headword - all of which are real uses implying higher / greater / etc, and none of which are the meaningless space-filler usage that so offends you.

RE: What's it with up?

I built up a post to shore up some flooring.  Gomer screwed it up with #10's or so I thought.  He f***ed up and used #6's instead so I had to run up to the store and pick up some more screws.  When I got back I saw that he took a break. I said what's up? He sat up and we fired one up and sat around and cut up for a while.  Then we decided to clean it up and head to the bar for the afternoon and the next morning promptly found ourselves puking it up.  

RE: What's it with up?

You could'a used JAE's advice and just hurled.

jimbo,
Sorry but I keep failing your challenge.  Those doors just keep opening-up almost on their own accord and I keep standing up.  As MJ says, "it's not a very satisfying oratorical experience to simply say, "stand."  Almost more demanding than the command to "stand up."  As Sanford would say, "why use one word when many will do?"  Don't you add up after adding down to check your work?  I do.

RE: What's it with up?

I'm from Italy. I had to learn my poor english from text books and in many of those text books I found the phrases
"listen up", "stand up", "sit up" as examples- I really thought they were correct. I'm amazed :(
One of the books had the phrase "listen up" as it's title..

I'll never understand English:( Couldn't you be a bit less complicated?

Che Dio ce la mandi buona, o almeno ce la mandi- Massimiliano Eusebi

RE: What's it with up?

What about "falling down"?
Can you really fall any direction other than down?

RE: What's it with up?

'Stand up' and 'stand down' do have different meanings as do 'sit up' and 'sit down'.  You can 'dress up', or you can 'dress down'.

In many cases, 'up' is functioning as an intesifying adverb, so 'listen up' is more emphatic then simply listen.

That being said, 'up' may be the most overused word in English, except like, for maybe 'like'.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

RE: What's it with up?

Yo, what's up wit dat yo...you know what I mean yo...

Go Mechanical Engineering
Tobalcane

RE: What's it with up?

Tacking "up" doesn't irk me as much as tacking on "old" to everything.  When I moved to Missouri a year ago, I found our that everything is "old" even if new!  Big old, fat old, little old.  It's starting to make me feel old.

RE: What's it with up?

Renee04,

I thought it was "ol'", as in "good ol' Mizzurah."

RE: What's it with up?

Mizzurah loves company.

RE: What's it with up?

You mean misery.  c'mon catch up.  This forum ain't what it's cracked up to be.  we need to conjur up something better.  I mean -- well you know I just mean it is really getting to me how overused a certain expression is I mean you know like...

RE: What's it with up?

Yeah, as in the State of Mizzurah.

RE: What's it with up?

Technopriest--in case you didn't catch it from the subtle replies of our esteemed colleagues, "up" isn't incorrect.  The use of "up" merely as an intensifier is a little on the informal side and I wouldn't use it in formal writing, but grammatically wrong it is not.

How you can tell when it can be left out and when it shouldn't...oy.  Prepositions in a foreign language never make any sense, and the difference in meaning conveyed by "up" can be subtle--and as a non-native speaker you're not in the best position to judge when the meaning changes.  For example, the difference between  "sum up" amd "sum" might not be obvious--the first means "summarize" and the second means "add".  I guess one way to tell would be to see if you can find the "up" version listed as such in some dictionary or other.  If you can't, then maybe the "up" doesn't need to be there.

Hg

RE: What's it with up?

Thanks for calming down this discussion.

RE: What's it with up?

Up Tight?

RE: What's it with up?

and outta sight!

RE: What's it with up?

Isn't it time for us shut up ?

RE: What's it with up?

How many of you have printed OUT a spreadsheet....

Another pet peeve, heard on PBS and Classical music stations:

"The time is coming up on eight o'clock."

Common usage can be so . . . common.

Larry

RE: What's it with up?

Perhaps we should call up Wm. F. Buckley and ask for a ruling.

RE: What's it with up?

jimbo,
Now that you have sensitized me to this, every time I start to use an "up" expression, I have to stop and think if it makes sense and find myself rewriting things a lot.  So it is only fair that I sensitize you too to:

double U, double U, double U

I get so sick of hearing that.  Why don't people just say "World Wide Web" and get done with it in syllables/3.  Did I already rant about this in anotjer thread?

RE: What's it with up?

how about w^3 or double u cubed?

Go Mechanical Engineering
Tobalcane

RE: What's it with up?

I've heard "dub-dub-dub", probably short for dubya, and also "wee-wee-wee".

Larry

RE: What's it with up?

all the way home

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