The Marvelous UP

Time for Friday fun.  How about another humorous look at at our wonderful English language.

But first, an important update.  Our friend Stephanie (that's her on her bike) made such great strides this week, she's been transferred from the hospital to a rehab facility.  She also spoke her first words and ate her first soft foods (bye bye, feeding tube).  It's really nothing short of a miracle.  My thanks to you all for your prayers and good wishes.

Now, on with the show.  Our star today is that marvelous word - UP.

This two-letter word more meanings than any other two-letter word in the English dictionary. It is listed as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].

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? We speak UP, officers are UP for election and it's UP to the secretary to write UP a report.

We call UP our friends, brighten UP a room, 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.

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 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 soaks UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP for now ........my time is UP!


Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

My current word count: 30,877 (Yes, this is the same as on Monday.  Sometimes life intrudes.)

I'm currently enjoying: The Treasures of Carmelidrium by N. R. Williams

Groaner of the day: There was a tradesman, a painter called Jock, who was very interested in making a penny where he could, so he often would thin down paint to make it go a wee bit further. As it happened, he got away with this for some time.  When the Baptist Church decided to re-paint one their biggest churches,Jock put in a bid, and because his price was so low, he got the job. So he set to erecting the trestles and setting up the planks, buying the paint and, yes, I am sorry to say, thinning it down with the turpentine.

Well, Jock was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly completed when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of thunder and the sky opened.  The rain poured down, washing the thinned paint from all over the church and knocking Jock clear off the scaffold to land on the lawn, surrounded by telltale puddles of the thinned and useless paint. Jock was no fool. He knew this was a judgment from the Almighty, so he got on his knees and cried: “Oh, God! Forgive me! What should I do?”

And from the thunder, a mighty voice spoke, “Repaint! Repaint! and thin no more!!”