put in = recommend

[Jonathan Lighter]

You can certainly be "up for promotion" (rather than "*in for promotion"; contrast "in for _a_ promotion") but promotion is often more of a "reward" than an "award."

  How about this array?

  a. They're up for promotion.

  b. They're up for a promotion.

  c. ?They're in for promotion.

  d. ?They're in for a promotion.

  JL
Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Re: put in = recommend
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I just gotta say, Jonathan, "put (someone) UP" for an award sounds at least as normal to me as "put (someone) IN" for an award. "Put (someone) UP" for promotion (to a higher professorial rank, for example) is almost obligatory; a verticle metaphor may remain somewhat "alive" there.

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2007 08:16:35 -0800
>From: Jonathan Lighter
>Subject: Re: put in = recommend
>
>_Put up,_" to propose for an honor or award" may well be historically relevant, but so far as I know, "put in" has been the prodominant U.S. form by far for many decades
>
> JL
>
>Charles Doyle wrote:
>
>This seems like a variant of (or, at least, a structurally parallel synonym for) "put up": OED _put_ verb 1, 56j.(a) "To propose for election or adoption. Also, to propose for an honour or award" (examples from 1573-1971).
>
>--Charlie
>______________________________________________________
>
>
>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2007 17:21:34 -0800
>>From: Jonathan Lighter
>>Subject: put in = recommend
>>
>>Meaning "Esp. _Mil._, to recommend (someone) officially for an award," virtually standard American English from WWII on, but not in OED:
>>
>> 1967 in Bill Frey _Letters from 'Nam_ (N.Y.: Warner Books, 1992) 22: I went out under heavy fire last night to bring in that wounded G.I. and I've been put in for a Bronze Star.
>>
>> WWII related cites are myriad, but I don't believe I've seen one antedating 1942.
>>
>> JL
>

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