“Up”-this two-letter word has more meanings than any other two-letter work. It is an adverb, prep, adj, noun and verb.
It is 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, brighten up a room, and polish up the silver. Warm up the leftovers and clean up the kitchen. We lock up the house and fix up the old car.
At other times this little word has real special meaning. People stir up trouble, line up for tickets, work up an appetite and think up excuses.
We are told to stand up, speak up, look up and shut up.
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 up the word up in the dictionary. In a desksized dictionary, it takes up almost ¼ 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 come out we say it is clearing up. When it rains, it soaks up the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry up. One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap up, for now…my time is up!
Oh…one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night?
U
P!
Did that crack you up?
Note: This is not original with me and I do not remember where I found it. If someone knows who wrote it let me know, I would be happy to give them credit for this clever piece.
