uphold

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English upholden, also uphalden,^[2][3] formed from English up- + hold.^[4][5][6] Etymonline treats the first part as the adverb up.^[7] hold is from Old English healdan.^[8][7] Similar formations occur in Old Frisian upholda, Middle Dutch ophouden and German aufhalten,^[4][7] and Old English already had the noun uppheald (“support”), formed from up and heald (“hold”), which survives in the Scots noun uphold, support.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To support or maintain something by help or assistance: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[4] Etymonline dates the word to about 1200 in the physical sense of holding up.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense, to hold up or keep from falling, is recorded from before 1300, in the Cursor Mundi,^[4] and that of lifting up, as the hands, from before 1400.^[4][2] In the 15th and 16th centuries the verb also meant to keep a building in repair (1511, in Scotland)^[4] and to provide someone with food, a sense now dialectal.^[4] The sense of supporting by argument or assent, sustaining against criticism, is recorded from Caxton in 1485,^[4] and that of maintaining a statement or warranting a fact from 1530;^[4] Etymonline dates these to the 1520s.^[7] Johnson (1755) gave "to lift on high" and "to support; to sustain; to keep from falling" as its first senses.^[9] Collins now marks the physical sense as rare.^[10] The verb upholster (1853) is a back-formation from upholsterer,^[7][4] and the OED derives the older noun upholster from uphold with the suffix -ster.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – to support, maintain, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[4]
• before 1300 – to hold up physically, in the Cursor Mundi.^[4]
• before 1400 – to raise or lift up.^[4]
• 1485 – to defend against objection, in Caxton.^[4]
• 1511 – to keep a building in repair.^[4]
• 1530 – to maintain a statement, warrant a fact.^[4]
• 1820 – to sustain spiritually.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To support or maintain something against challenge or opposition; to defend: The committee upheld its earlier decision.^[10][3]
2. To keep up a standard, tradition or the like: to uphold the honour of the regiment.^[3][4]
3. To give moral or spiritual support to.^[10][4]
4. (rare) To hold up physically; to keep from falling.^[10][4]
5. To lift up or raise.^[10][4][9]

Word family

• upholder
• upholster
• upholsterer

Related words

• hold

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins