"Gen up"

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 3/1/01 10:04:58 AM Eastern Standard Time,
Heaberlin at SWT.EDU writes:

<< On NPR news this morning, I heard the reporter say something like "Bush is
 trying to "gen up" support for his tax cut." I had never before heard that
 expression. Is it familiar to the rest of you? >>

My first impression is that "gen up" is an alteration of "generate" (a word
which easily fits the context) and that I have heard this usage before,
although I can't think of any specific usages.

Possibly it's because I'm a computer programmer and am familiar with the word
"SYSGEN", which is both a noun and a verb, "to generate a customized new
version of an operating system from components supplied by the vendor"  (the
term is used with mainframes and minicomputers but not with PC's or other
microcomputers).

I am not familiar with "gin up".

A quick Web search turned up several hundred hits, mostly from the UK and
Commonwealth countries.  Here's a typical one

"Gen up on the National Minimum Wage

Following the recent increase in the National Minimum Wage the DTI has
updated the NMW section of its website. There is a PDF document covering the
increase which can be downloaded here.

For those still unclear as to how this new legislation actually works in
practice the DTI website has plenty of information and FAQs, links to the
full text of the National Minimum Wage Act and regulations and to related
organisations such as ACAS and the Low Pay Commission."

(from URL http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/news/stories/131/13068.html )

Apparently, while the NPR reporter was using a synonym for "generate", the
term "gen up" is common in the UK and Commonwealth with a meaning something
like "to get information on" or "to bone up on", and this usage does not seem
to be known in the US.

                - Jim Landau