etymology - Origin of "washing up"


Where does the phrase "to wash up" (equally "to clean up") originate from?


Particularly the word "up", how did that enter the phrase?



Answer



Both wash up and clean up are phrasal verbs, which are very common in English. These verbs then to share a common etymology: old english verbs with separable preposition prefixes. Suite101 has a nice write-up:



Phrasal verbs in Modern English developed from verbs with separable preposition prefixes in Old English. Verbs with separable preposition prefixes still exist in Modern German and Modern Dutch. For example, the Modern German verb aufwachen "to wake up" consists of the verb wachen and the preposition prefix auf. When the verb is conjugated, the preposition prefix moves to the end of the predicate phrase as in ich wache auf "I wake up." Old English verbs with separable preposition prefixes evolved into phrasal verbs in which the preposition follows the verb in Middle English.



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