Etymologically
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upright

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈʌpɹaɪt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English upriht, inherited from Old English upriht (“standing up, erect”), also written uppriht,[2][3][4] a compound of ūp (“up”) and riht (“right, straight”),[5][2][6] that is, of up and right.[4][7] Wiktionary reconstructs the common Germanic form as Proto-Germanic *upprehtaz.[1] The same compound is found across Germanic: Old Frisian upriucht, Middle Dutch oprecht (modern oprecht), Old High German ūfreht (modern German aufrecht) and Old Norse upréttr, with Danish opret and Swedish upprät.[2][3][6] Weekley compares the figurative use of the German word and aufrichtig (“sincere”).[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Erect, standing up on the feet: the OED's first example is from Beowulf,[2] which Barnhart dates to about 725.[3] Old English also used the adjective for lying flat on the back with the face upwards, a sense that lasted until 1627,[2][7] and Etymonline gives "face-upward, not bent or curved" among its first meanings.[4]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense "morally good, honest, righteous" grew from the idea of standing straight:[4] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century,[4] while Barnhart's first example is from Palsgrave's French grammar of 1530,[3] and Hoad dates "of unbending rectitude" to the 16th century.[6] Of things, upright meant set or placed vertically from 1398, in Trevisa,[2] and of persons, erect in carriage from about 1390, in Chaucer's Miller's Tale.[2] In 16th- and 17th-century cant an upright man was a big, sturdy vagrant, one of the higher class of beggars, or their leader.[2][4][7] The noun, at first "a vertical front or face", is recorded from 1563;[3][5] a vertical timber in a frame is from about 1700, anything standing erect from 1742, and an upright piano from 1860.[4][3] In English dialects upright also meant sound in health, not lame, and in the phrase to live upright, living on private means without working, recorded from Yorkshire to Suffolk.[9][2]

Timeline

  • Old English – upriht, erect on the feet; also lying face upward.[2][3]
  • before 1340 – verb, to raise to an upright position.[2]
  • late 14th century – morally upright, honest.[4]
  • c. 1390 – of a person, erect in carriage.[2]
  • 1398 – of a thing, set vertically.[2]
  • 1509 – adverb, uprightly.[2][3]
  • 1530 – honest, righteous (Barnhart's first example).[3]
  • 1563 – noun, a vertical front or face.[3][5]
  • 1567 – (cant) upright man, a sturdy vagrant.[2]
  • 1742 – something standing erect, as a post.[4][3]
  • 1860 – an upright piano.[4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Standing straight up; vertical or erect: Please return your seats to the upright position.
  2. Honest, honourable and just in conduct: an upright judge.
  3. Of a device or piece of furniture, built to stand or be used vertically, as an upright piano or an upright freezer.

Adverb

  1. In or into a vertical position: He sat bolt upright when the phone rang.

Noun

  1. A vertical support, such as a post or stake.
  2. An upright piano.
  3. The state of being vertical: The fence leans out of upright.

Verb

  1. To set upright; to raise to a vertical position.

Word family

  • uprightly
  • uprightness

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)