phrases - What does “suck it up and go” mean?


I came across the phrase, “suck it up and go” in the columnist’s answer to a question from a reader of Carolyn Hax's column in Washington Post’s “Lifestyle” section (July 2nd). The Q&A titled “Ever the aunt, never the godmom” begins with the following sentence:



“Dear Carolyn: We just got an invitation to the baptism of my seventh nephew on my husband’s side. Once again we were not considered as godparents. I felt snubbed. -- Is this a legitimate snub? Should I talk to my sister-in-law about it?”



and Carolyn answers:



“Boycotting the baptism in a wounded huff would be petty, yes, and that’s the main reason to suck it up and go - but you also need to go because nothing would undermine your own purpose more tidily than staying home.”



I checked the meaning of “suck it up and go” in English Japanese dictionaries at hand only to find one of them shows “suck it and see” meaning “to try” as a British and Australian usage. Online dictionaries register “suck it (up) and “go suck,” but not “suck it up and go.”


What does “suck it up and go” mean? Is it an American version of “suck it and see”?



Answer



The idiom suck it up meaning to stoically endure hardship in order to achieve some objective, or meet expectations, seems to have started to gain currency in the mid-1970s.


A somewhat graphic etymology put forward in Urban dictionary is that it's pilot slang. If you vomit into your mask, you'd better suck it up. Otherwise, you can inhale it and die. I can't deny that may be true - but I'd rather not think about it too much!


Here's a Wiktionary "talk" page dismissing the WW2 pilot slang origin. Their actual entry for the phrase says it probably derives from "suck up one's chest", but I must say "suck in one's stomach" is more common for stand tall and straight, stoically ready to be judged/subjected to adversity. Whatever - I'll just say the origin is "uncertain".


The italicising of suck it up and go is by OP. The and go [to the baptism] isn't part of the idiom - it's just the hardship to be endured in this particular case (the aunt obviously doesn't want to go if she's still not to honoured as a godparent).


Obviously this idiom is unrelated to suck it and see (try out an idea). Interestingly, there's also suck it all in (to wholeheartedly embrace all aspects of a novel experience or environment). But to suck in the sense of "be inferior" also got started in the 70's, and is now ubiquitous, along with suck my dick. So quite likely "positive" idioms like suck it all in will fall into disuse because they clash with the more common negative usages.


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