UP! That Versatile and Resourceful little runt of a word!
The word UP certainly gives you a bang for your buck! This measly little two letter word can mean just about anything under the sun. Eat up means EVERYTHING. Speak up? Don’t be shy. Talk up? Please promote. Get up? Start your day. Quite a powerful punch for such a little upstart.
What I find particularly funny, though, is when the word “up” is used, not as an antonym, but as a synonym of its opposite, “down,” which doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to me.
“Come on up!” means the same thing as “Come on down!” doesn’t it? Even more common, “The car is coming DOWN the street” is identical in meaning to “The car is coming UP the street.” How can a word’s antonym be its synonym?
My guess is (and this is, admittedly without having researched the topic, as I haven’t yet had my third cup of coffee this morning), that the street direction originated with river travel. If you are following the boat’s currents, you are, quite literally and correctly, sailing DOWN the river. If you go against the current, you are sailing UP the river…..but in both cases you are following the river’s path. The same designations then, seem to have carried over to street directions, though I think that whoever came up with the idea didn’t think it through in its entirety.
A few uppity people live uptown which here in NOLA is Upriver.
Downtown is down river and generally more 'down home'.
Then there is James Brown, 'Get Up, Get On UP'.
which is certainly getting down.