[Ads-l] How prevalent is "to upstream"?

[Dan Goncharoff]

I note that this NY times article from 2010 does not use any variant of
"upstream":

https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/complaint-box-that-was-my-cab/
?_r=0

But this article in the Village Voice a year later refers to "upstreaming"
in an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm":

https://www.villagevoice.com/2011/09/06/how-to-react-when-someone-steals-your-cab/

On May 29, 2017 4:44 PM, "ADSGarson O'Toole" <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Laurence Horn wrote:
> > Perfect.  So it’s been around longer than I thought—and it’s NYC-based,
> > which supports my hunch.
> >
> >> Garson O'Toole wrote:
> >> Below is an instance of "upstreamed" with the desired sense that
> >> probably appeared in a 1976 book.
> >>
> >> Year: 1976
> >> Title: The blood-red dream
> >> Author: Michael Collins
> >> Publisher: New York: Dodd, Mead
> >> Series: A Red badge novel of suspense
> >> Database: Google Books Snippet; data may be inaccurate and should be
> >> verified on paper
> >>
> >> [Begin excerpt]
> >> He walked toward Lexington, turned south waving for a taxi. He was no
> >> New Yorker. Going downstream was no way to get a cab at any time, and
> >> never in the rain. I upstreamed him, got my taxi, and had it follow
> >> him slowly down the avenue.
> >> [End excerpt]
>
> Here is a citation in a recent book about manners (or lack thereof).
> The word "upstream" is used in the domain of taxi interception, but it
> is not used as a verb. Yet, the passages below suggest how the verb
> was constructed.
>
> Year: 2012
> Title: Would It Kill You to Stop Doing That: A Modern Guide to Manners
> Author: Henry Alford
> Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
> Database: Google Books Preview
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> To wit, it is my belief that if indeed you are in great need of a
> cab—you're late for an appointment, or it is raining, or it is two in
> the morning and you are standing on a dicey part of Flatbush—then it
> is permissible to walk upstream of another party that is also hailing
> a cab, as long as you walk far enough upstream that that party cannot
> see you. Well, at least not glare at you.
> [End excerpt]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Hail Caesar
>
> Toward the end of my interview with Miss Manners in the lobby of my DC
> hotel, I mentioned that I'd been teaching foreigners how to steal a
> cab.
> "I can never get a cab in New York," she told me. "How do you get the
> cab to stop?'
> "They're not seeing you?"
> "Yes. Or something. I think they can tell who's not a New Yorker."
> "Are you standing out far enough in the street? You've got to be out
> in the traffic."
> "Out in the traffic, but not run over."
> "Right," I said. "But you've got to be a little brazen. And the rule
> for stealing a cab is that you've got to walk at least a block
> upstream."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
>
>
>
> >>
> >> On Mon, May 29, 2017 at 3:52 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> >>> …or in the passive, “to be upstreamed”, as employed in this NYT
> Metropolitan Diary item a couple of weeks ago:
> >>>
> >>> Dear Diary:
> >>>
> >>> On a cold Friday night on West End Avenue at 83rd Street, an older man
> and woman hailed a cab that flashed its lights in response. As the cab
> waited for the light to change, a young man grabbed it. The older man could
> be heard saying to his wife that being “upstreamed” was part of New York
> City life and to be accepted. The young man unexpectedly jumped from the
> cab, approached the couple, apologized and turned toward Broadway to find
> another cab. The older man saw a second cab and hailed it, calling out to
> the younger man, who happily climbed in. Only in New York can being
> upstreamed create an encouraging circle of good citizenship.
> >>>
> >>> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/nyregion/metropolitan-
> diary-upstreamed-hailing-a-cab-on-west-end-avenue.html
> >>>
> >>> It seemed as though everyone involved, and several commenters, were
> familiar with the term (as well as the practice, advertent or in-), but I’m
> pretty sure I’d never previously encountered the lexical item, despite
> growing up in and around NYC. True, I've very rarely taken taxis and you
> can’t be upstreamed by someone at a bus or subway stop.   Is this a
> particularly NYC expression?  Googling, I do find a number of examples
> (it’s not new) but not all *that* many, once you filter out the irrelevant
> homonym from the tech world.  Well, I suppose not entirely irrelevant since
> the software expression ultimately employs the same metaphor (upstream is
> ‘closer to the source’), so maybe it involves polysemy rather than homonymy.
> >>>
> >>> The dictionaries I consulted (OED, AHD, Urban) don’t include an entry
> for the (active or passive) verb.
> >>>
> >>> LH
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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