People with "up"

"Up" is an industrious little word, always looking for new ways to make itself useful. 

From the cover piece in today's New York Times Magazine, quoting a member of John McCain's inner circle:

"So the thinking was, do you man up and try to affect the outcome, or do you hold it at arm's length? And no, it was not an easy call."

From Dahlia Lithwick in Slate yesterday: 

It's become a truism of elections that both camps will "lawyer up" before the big day. 

Half a century ago, the OED Online reports, "man up" meant "staff up." And, according to the same source, "to lawyer up" in recent U.S. police slang is 

"to request a lawyer when being questioned by the police, often implying a probable lack of cooperation with the investigation."

(The citation, from 1995, refers to N.Y.P.D. Blue.)

Now "man up" has morphed into a more dignified synonym of "cowboy up" (which busted out of the rodeo arena when it became the Red Sox rallying cry). And "lawyer up" has taken its cue from the old "man up" -- the one that meant "staff up."

Keep an eye on people with "up." They're up-and-comers. 

Comments

From British TV series, sometime in the early 90s: "Let's get celebritied up!"

Posted by David | October 26, 2008 2:48 PM

I've never heard anyone say "cowboy up," and I'm wondering if that has more to do with my age (23) or where I'm from (the South). I think "man up" works better anyway, mostly because it doesn't have "boy" in it.

Posted by Greg | October 27, 2008 8:07 AM

Hmm.. I always attributed the expression of "man up" to be a sports metaphor. To man up, in sports, is to play a person-to-person defense, each individual player being responsible for defending one opposing player. In my mind this is used metaphorically to suggest that each individual participant in the problem needs to get involved, to do their part, for the good of the team. Yes? No?

Posted by Jenny | October 28, 2008 1:38 PM

I am a Frenchman without any fluency in English, and I don't know whether I must introduce myself as an humble reader of the Atlantic, or a humble reader. Am I to understand (from your note on Nov. 5th) that even you, American friends, hesitate between two sentences: Obama's election is an historic event, or a historic event ? Since English language, for a large part, is nothing but French horridly pronounced, may I be allowed to make an observation ? In the greek words beginning with a rough breathing (dasu pneuma, esprit rude), like historia, the greek speakers have dropped their initial h- many centuries ago. And we say in French : l'histoire (not la histoire), les événements historiques (avec liaison, i.e. sounding the final -s before the initial h-, which has no phonologic meaning anymore). Suivez le guide !

Posted by Christian Jaby, Illkirch, France | November 8, 2008 4:57 AM