THIS ONE, sent by an uppity reader, is for all of you who are into words and their usage.One two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is “UP”.It is listed in the dictionary 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? Why do we speak UP? 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, 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. 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.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 are 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. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out . . . 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 and on, but I’ll wrap it UP, for now . . . my time is UP. Oh . . . one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night? U P !Don’t goof UP. Share this with everyone you look UP in your address book. Now I’ll shut UP!So endeth the UPstanding and UPful reasonings.It brought to mind the big wuk-UP/mashUP that will be going down on Kadooment day. I hope when some people drinkUP, smokeUp and snortUP they don’t get vexUP and stabUP or cutUP anybody.Isn’t it strange that we only paint UP in the Caribbean, never paint down or across. What’s UP with that?We are sometimes told to pay UP, when a bill is UP; or to put UP or shut UP when we complain.There are few to whom one can look UP. Except the One who is UP there, somewhere, over the rainbow, way UP high.Many believers freeze UP at the thought of dying before going UP.While getting older is a must, growing UP is optional.• Dawn Morgan is a NATION senior reporter (advertising) who hopes when her money dries UP she still remains UPbeat. dawnmorgan@nationnews.com tel 430-5495.
