Where does “up” come from?

Up comes from Old English upp, from Proto-Germanic upp, from Proto-Germanic ub, from Proto-Indo-European upó, from the root h₃ewp-.

up (English): Away from the surface of the Earth or other...

Definitions

  1. Away from the surface of the Earth or other...

Ancestry of “up”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishupto a vertical axis
2Old Englishuppup; upstairs
3Proto-West Germanic*upp

Words derived from “up

Every word from Proto-West Germanic *upp