"man up"

Sat Dec 2 19:13:09 UTC 2006

The "man up" usage mentioned by Jonathan Ligher is apparently part of a productive pattern. I seem to remember a discussion here some years back about "cowboy up." More surprising to me are examples like:

ballsy up:  "...sooner or later Brit cops are going to ballsy up and sue or threaten strike for side arms..."
http://forums.officer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56295

gutsy up: "Start off with some raw oysters (they don't steam 'em here, so gutsy up)."
http://primary.lodging.com/auto/article-affiliates.cgi?name=A+Guided+Tour+of+Key+West&remote=carston

These surprised me b/c they involve derived adjectives which I find harder to make into verbs.

BTW, I came across these in looking for examples of "gutsy up" as an eggcorn for "gussy up". I found at least one clear example of this:
"been running around all day and taking care of some cleaning and laundry! going to get all gutsy up for later tonight"
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=26632887

-Matt Gordon

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Sat 12/2/2006 8:09 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject:      WUXTRA ! WUXTRA!: "hike down," "man up"

Fox's Alisyn Camerata on the Britney photos (there are at least two of them): "She doesn't appear to be trying to hike her skirt down."

  Fox's Kelly Wright, upbraiding notably inarticulate photographer Edwin Merino for his "lack of responsibility in releasing these photos" which could encourage going commando by the bimbo masses: "But come on, man up, where's the responsibility here? Didn't you think that [etc., etc.]?"

  UrbanDictionary.com has "man up" back to 2002. It's hard to search for.

  Observers noted that the BRITNEY COMMANDO! caption was unaccompanied by glossarial interpretation.

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