I walked past our CEO and the head of our foundation in the hall today, together in coats and obviously heading out somewhere. And I said as we passed, “Going out to scare up some money for us?”
The CEO burst into laughter and said to the foundation pres, “We must have quite the reputation”, as they walked on. I inferred from this reaction that maybe he thought I literally meant scare as in frighten or intimidate people into giving to us.
That wasn’t my intent at all. Actually, I’m not even sure why I picked those words, but I’ve never understood the phrase “scare up” to intended so literally. I think of it to mean something more like digging for coins under couch covers, or scraping up some money when you don’t have much. And no, I don’t know why I didn’t say “scrape up”.
Anyway, have you heard the phrase used in such a literal sense? Or am I misinterpreting his response altogether?
Were they trench coats? You clearly work for the head of the Wisconsin Mafia
According to m-w.com, this idiom means exactly that: scrape up. There’s no indication at all of its more literal interpretation coming into play at all.
The OED indicates that the original meaning was more or less literal. “Scaring up” meant “flushing out” [game, birds, etc.]. From there it evolved into it’s more metaphorical meaning of “bringing to light” or “discovering.”
Frak. I knew I meant to look something up in the OED when I got home last night.
My initial reaction was that your CEO meant “Boy, we really have a reputation for going after the $$.”
I’m with Lab on this one. I don’t believe the PTBs took it as anything other than you intended.
As the CEO and the president of a not-for-profit, they are both pretty much full-time fundraisers and cheerleaders. I just don’t get why it drew such a response unless they understood it in some other way than I intended it.