The Ups and Downs
This is the time of the year when many people focus on the UPs and DOWNs of their favourite football team. With championships and play-offs and relegation battles there is a considerable amount of money at stake for many clubs as they face the final few days of the football season.
That got me to thinking about the words “UP” and “DOWN”. Both have many uses and I thought it would be fun to explore some of them here.
I would suggest that the little word UP has perhaps more meanings than any other two-letter-word in the English language. When we start the day, we wake UP. At any meeting we might attend there will be topics which come UP. At that same meeting some officers might be UP for election. It will be the responsibility of the secretary to write UP the minutes of the meeting and we might call UP our friends to tell them what a terrible meeting we have experienced.
You may look UP to someone, the weather might brighten UP, a beautiful baby might light UP our lives when we see her first smile. As that child grows UP she might play dressing UP or she might clean UP her bedroom or fix UP a meal for someone. She might even travel UP to London… and I’m starting to dry UP of ideas now, I think!
In the reversal of this we might dress DOWN for an occasion or even look DOWN on someone else who is there. If you break the law you could be sent DOWN by the judge or magistrate. Watership DOWN is the book, and film. Sadly, some people suffer with DOWN Syndrome.
For the sports fans among us there is the terrible threat of going DOWN to a lower division or league. This is balanced by the sheer delight of the fans whose team is coming UP!
All this takes me back to my courting days when I took my girlfriend (now wife) to a concert by Steeleye Span, an UP and coming folk-rock group of the 70s who are still around today. One of the songs this group sang is “The Ups and Downs” which I think is a nickname for a regiment of soldiers - it was a fun song anyway and I was pleased to see the lyrics are still available on the Internet.
It can be great fun to play around with words, and explore their odd uses and dream UP ways of using a particular word, whether you are writing a story, a poem or even a letter or email to a friend. There are writing courses which explore all of these.
I never get tired of playing with words and having fun with them. How about you?
Now I will shut UP!
That got me to thinking about the words “UP” and “DOWN”. Both have many uses and I thought it would be fun to explore some of them here.
I would suggest that the little word UP has perhaps more meanings than any other two-letter-word in the English language. When we start the day, we wake UP. At any meeting we might attend there will be topics which come UP. At that same meeting some officers might be UP for election. It will be the responsibility of the secretary to write UP the minutes of the meeting and we might call UP our friends to tell them what a terrible meeting we have experienced.
You may look UP to someone, the weather might brighten UP, a beautiful baby might light UP our lives when we see her first smile. As that child grows UP she might play dressing UP or she might clean UP her bedroom or fix UP a meal for someone. She might even travel UP to London… and I’m starting to dry UP of ideas now, I think!
In the reversal of this we might dress DOWN for an occasion or even look DOWN on someone else who is there. If you break the law you could be sent DOWN by the judge or magistrate. Watership DOWN is the book, and film. Sadly, some people suffer with DOWN Syndrome.
For the sports fans among us there is the terrible threat of going DOWN to a lower division or league. This is balanced by the sheer delight of the fans whose team is coming UP!
All this takes me back to my courting days when I took my girlfriend (now wife) to a concert by Steeleye Span, an UP and coming folk-rock group of the 70s who are still around today. One of the songs this group sang is “The Ups and Downs” which I think is a nickname for a regiment of soldiers - it was a fun song anyway and I was pleased to see the lyrics are still available on the Internet.
It can be great fun to play around with words, and explore their odd uses and dream UP ways of using a particular word, whether you are writing a story, a poem or even a letter or email to a friend. There are writing courses which explore all of these.
I never get tired of playing with words and having fun with them. How about you?
Now I will shut UP!
posted by David at
09:10
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home