As in “He/She stood me up.”
Well, what? He/She stood you up and what? Seems like there should be more to that statement.
I know what it means, I just don’t know how it came about or if there was more to it at one time.
Anyone?
Thanks
Quasi
It’s the past tense of “stand up.”
Don’t shoot me.
As of the early 1980s, the OED did not have a specific etymology for that phrase, noting only that it was colloquial from the U.S. and providing several citations from 1902, 1906, and later. However, of the 108 or so other primary definitions for stand, nearly all the transitive verb forms have a meaning that roughly corresponds to “set in place.”
For a WAG, I would suggest that when one is stood up for a date, one has been “put in place” by the promise of the other party to meet, only to have the other party not show up.
While tom probably gave you about as good an answer as exists, I would throw in two other possiblities, however slight.
Stand up was used quite a bit in the US for a few decades prior to the 1906 O Henry cite. But it meant to be present at a wedding, either as the groom, bride, or best man/woman. I can just imagine when either the bride or groom didn’t show, there could have been a play on words…
The other reference is mentioned in the OED as “Webster, 1911.” ‘To stand up to’ meant=to meet fairly and fully( (an obligation, one’s word or promise). If it was in Webster in 1911, it certainly existed well before that. And if a person didn’t “stand up to” an appointment, then the person with whom the appointment was made could consider himself “stood up.”
Farfetched, perhaps.
I will buy both of those explanations, and I thank you both kindly. I always feel pleased when I get an answer to one of my posts from tom and/or samclem!
Quasi
Y’know, I did consider the possibility that the meaning “left in the lurch” was actually an ironic reference to either of samclem’s definitions. I decided not to propose that because the actual citations didn’t sound ironic. However, since the first written reference may have followed the spoken (and more easily noted as ironic) versions by some years, that is certainly a possibility.
Back in the old days, girls/women at formal dances had a dance card. The boys/men were expected to write their name in the numbered list to schedule a dance with the lady for a “number” for which he was free. (Hence, the term “number” to refer to a song played by an orchestra at a dance). If he screwed up and put his name down on two lady’s cards for the same number, he would have to leave one of them “standing” in vain.
Or if at the end of a dance her number and his number was free, he could dance with her again or, otherwise, he would leave her standing on the dance floor while he rushed off to another lady or the men’s room. In both scenarios she would be “stood up.”
If all the numbers on a lady’s dance card were taken, her “dance would be filled” and she would have a partner for every dance—unless, of course, she was “stood up.”:mad:
Yeah, folk origins are rarely true. If there’s a cute story with it, it’s probably made up.
I would have guessed that it was short for “stood up and knocked down”, i.e., got your hopes up and then dashed them, but that’s just a WAG.