Post
by lalaith » Sun 05.27.2007 10:30 am
From the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage:
"Some usage books and schoolbooks view the phrase up and with the same distaste they direct at take and, go and and try and (which see). Up and is no bucolic idiom redolent of our frontier past, however; it is current on both sides of the Atlantic, and is used in general publications, often by writers of more than ordinary sophistication. It, too, is not highly informal.
...a young woman had upped and offed with the family chauffeur -- Dr James Hemming, Good Housekeeping (London) Feb 1976
You up and run away from home -- Alan Coren, Punch, 12 March 1975
...suddenly upped and won three more major championships -- Frank Deford, Sports Illustrated, 19 Sept. 1983
...I think all biographers subconsciously hope their man will up and die, clearing the boards and making everything a whole lot simpler -- E.B. White, letter, 20 Sept. 1968
(\__/) This is Bunny. Copy and paste
(='.'=) bunny into your signature to help
(")_(") him gain world domination.