It's UP to you!!
It's easy to understand the use of the word "up" in "sit up" or "stand up" or "get up", but why do we wake up? Why, in a discussion, is a topic brought up? Why do we speak up? Why are we up for election? And why is it up to the secretary to write up the minutes?
Frequently the word is not needed: thus we brighten up, freshen up, light up (though not so many of us these days), polish up the silver, fix up the car and lock up the house. Some people stir up trouble. We queue up for tickets, work up an appetite, think up an excuse, get held up in traffic and tied up at the office. To be dressed up is different from just being dressed. But we open up a drain if it is blocked up. We open up a shop in the morning and close it up at night, for closing down means something quite different. We appear to be thoroughly mixed up about the uses of "up".
If you want to be up on the proper use of up, look it up in the dictionary. In one dictionary it takes up half a page, the definitions adding up to around 40. If you feel up to it you might try making up a list of all the ways up is used. It will take up a lot of time and if your don't give up you might have to hurry up and make up after the bust up with your spouse for using up so much effort when you could be better employed washing up. So cheer up or you could wind up up the pole.
Anon.
