upstage = "to raise to the next degree"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not in OED. This should rightly be considered a stupidism, but since it occurs on a Latin grammar website I'll keep my opinion to myself:

  2007 William Harris _Brief Review of the Noun, Adjective, and Pronouns_ http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Latin/Alternative_Grammars/Harris_Grammar/Latin-Harris_07.html : ADJECTIVES have two up-staged or intensified forms...When adverbs are upstaged to the Comparative state, they do this: a) They use a form in -ius which is the neuter of the comparable stage of the adjective. E.g. tristius "mode sadly, rather sadly"

  JL


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