upon

English Online Dictionary. What means upon‎? What does upon mean?

English

Alternative forms

• uppon, vpon, vppon (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English upon, uppon, uppen, from Old English upon, uppon, uppan (“on, upon, up to, against, after, in addition to”), equivalent to up (“adverb”) +‎ on (“preposition”). Cognate with Old Saxon uppan (“upon”), Old High German ūfan, ūffan (“upon”), Icelandic upp á, upp á (“up on, upon”), Swedish uppå (“up on, upon”) (thence Swedish på), Danish på (“up on, upon”), Norwegian på (“up on, upon”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈpɒn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈpɑn/, /əˈpɔn/
• Hyphenation: up‧on
• Rhymes: -ɒn

Preposition

upon

1. A higher-register or more formal alternative to on in most, though not all, prepositional uses.

Usage notes

A somewhat elevated word, "upon" is used mostly in literary, poetic or legal contexts, and may seem out of place in everyday language. Nevertheless, its use in educated conversational English is unremarkable in some contexts, mostly more abstract ones, for example "I depended upon them" or "He took it upon himself to tell them", while conversational "Where's my pen?" / "It's upon the table" is likely to sound pedantic or strange. For some uses of "on", such as "I saw it on that TV show" or "Is he active on Facebook?", "upon" is so strained as to be effectively impossible. Conversely, "on" is possible as an alternative to "upon" in almost all cases; exceptions include certain set phrases, such as "once upon a time" or "Upon my word!" (dated expression of surprise).

Derived terms

Translations

References

• “upon”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Puno

Bikol Central

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʔuˈpon/ [ʔuˈpon̪]
• Hyphenation: u‧pon

Noun

upón (Basahan spelling ᜂᜉᜓᜈ᜔)

1. wild boar

   Synonym: baboy

See also

Middle English

Alternative forms

• vpon, uppon, uppen, upan, apan

Etymology

From Old English upon, uppon, uppan (“on, upon, up to, against, after, in addition to”), equivalent to up +‎ on.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /uˈpɔn/

Preposition

upon

1. upon

Adverb

upon

1. upon

Descendants

• English: upon
• Yola: apan, apaa, apa, upan, upa, pa (aphetic)

References

• “upon, prep.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “upon, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.