Uparmoring

[Jeff Prucher]

--- "Joyce, Thomas F." <TJoyce at BELLBOYD.COM> wrote:

> "Uparmor" as a verb meaning "to upgrade [one's] armor" has started to be
> used within the last year or so.  Are there any other recent examples of
> new verbs based on the prefix "up-" that carry the meaning of enhancing,
> improving, securing an advantage, etc.=3F  The OED attestations for
> "upgrade" and "upstage" suggest they are 20th century verbs.  One can
> =66ind much older formations for many other verbs, including obsolete
> ones.  Is "uparmor" just the most recent application of the prefix, or
> is something else going on (e.g., a bad neologism) that just
> superficially resembles "upstage," etc.  Note that with other verbs, a
> noun (upgrade) or adverb (upstage) seems to have been attested long
> before the verb.=20

I've caught myself saying "upsell", meaning to convince a customer to purchase
a more expensive item, lately, although I don't know how long it's been around.
 (In the context of being upsold of course; heaven forfend that I should be
caught upselling.)  I think I only became aware of it in the last few years.

Jeff Prucher



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