Friday, January 11th, 2013

Up
Lovers of the English language might enjoy this: How do
non-natives ever learn all the nuances of English?
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings
than any other two-letter word, and that word 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, 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 1/4 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 UP the earth. When it doesn't rain for a while,
things dry UP.
One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time
is UP, so ... Time to shut UP!
      -Received from Thomas Ellsworth.
       via Good Clean Funnies List 7/9/2009