Catch someone up

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Tue Dec 12 20:42:48 UTC 2006


It's very common over here, but I wouldn't want to say for how long that's been true.  It isn't in the online OED.

  My vague, unreliable impression is that it became common on TV news in the '80s or early '90s.

  JL



neil <neil at TYPOG.CO.UK> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: neil
Subject: Catch someone up
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I'm aware of losing teams playing catch-up rugby when they have to be more
expansive and risk-taking.

I'm also familiar with meeting someone to catch up on the latest news.

But the following use is new to me. Is it a recent formulation?

"And Jim? How is he?"

"He's the best. He's wonderful, Alex." [...]

"You'll catch me up on what he's doing."

--Linda Fairstein, 'Death Dance', Little Brown, 2006, 275

Neil Crawford

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