phrasal verbs - Usage of "stood up" to mean "set up"


I was reading this question on meta.ELU and was struck by what, to me, was a strange use of the phrasal verb to stand up:



The site for English Language Learners was stood up in large part so that non-native speakers could have a place where their questions, which would be regarded by some to be "too basic" for ELU, could ask their questions. The site was stood up in January of this year.



Now, to me that means that the poor site was left waiting for someone who never showed up. However, the author of the question (J.R., one of our highest rep users) seems to be using it to mean was set up. Is this common usage? Is it from a particular dialect? I have never come across it before and cannot find it in the dictionary definitions that I checked.



Answer



This is very interesting; as the offending writer, I had no idea this would sound so strange to so many.


I did some research, and I found that the term seems to be used almost exclusively by two communities:



  • Computer systems and web development

  • Government and military organizations


Given that I have a computer science background with more than a decade of government service, I suppose it makes the expression sound especially natural to my ear. (As I've said in other answers and comments, the longer you are familiar with some expression, the easier it is to presume others are familiar with it, too.)


Here are some usages I found scouring the web. As one can see, each instance can be tied back to one the two realms I have mentioned – government organizations, or technical support:




  • The Wyoming Military Department will stand up a new directorate

  • “The economy and tourism in the region Batur and Kintamani Bangli will be more advanced, because behind Mount Batur, it will stand up a new airport,” said Wacik.

  • This fall, AMC will stand up a new command that will coordinate the activities of the Army’s extensive web of labs and technology centers

  • In two years, we’ve restructured twice around getting to the right market-focused, customer-focused type of organization. We stood up a new business development organization, and we were able to move our win rates from the low teens to close to 50 percent

  • In anticipation of my upcoming iPhone application release, I figured it was time to stand up a new website

  • For example, the marketing department wants to run a new ad campaign, needs to stand up a new website, [or] maybe it needs to put up a new shopping portal to respond to a threat from a competitor.

  • The customer stood up a new server and proceeded to restore the system from tape backup.



So, yes, the expression "stood up" means roughly "set up, organized, and opened for business," but, evidently, it might not be a familiar expression outside of those two domains.


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