upstart

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English upsterten, formed from Middle English up- + sterten (“to leap, start”);^[2][3][4] the noun is taken from the verb by the Shorter Oxford,^[5] and by the OED from up- and the noun start.^[4] The second element has its early sense "to jump, spring, rise",^[6][7] and goes back to Old English styrtan (“to leap up”).^[6] Hoad compares the contemporary start-up, formed from the past participle of the verb and the adverb up,^[8] and Weekley notes that Middle English had startup in the same sense, still found as a surname, with a Stephen Stertup in the 12th-century Pipe Rolls.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To start or spring up, to spring to one's feet: 1303, in R. Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[4] Etymonline dates the verb about 1300,^[6] and the Middle English Dictionary quotes Arthour and Merlin (about 1330) and Chaucer's Knight's Tale.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The noun, from 1555, pictures someone who springs up suddenly from a humble position to power or rank,^[6][4][3] the same image as mushroom in this sense from the 1590s.^[6] Shakespeare used both upstart and start-up, but start-up did not survive the 17th century.^[9][7] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "one suddenly raised to wealth, power, or honour; what suddenly rises and appears".^[10] The adjective followed in the 1560s, first of new-fangled things (1565) and then of persons lately risen (1566).^[4][6] The Shorter Oxford notes that the noun is used especially of someone seen as arrogant or unqualified,^[5] and the verb is now poetic or archaic.^[5][11] In dialect the verb meant to rear like a startled horse (North Yorkshire), the adjective "stuck-up, domineering" (Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Surrey), and the noun a hole left by a horse's hoof in clay (East Anglia), a stick in the woodwork of a thatched roof (Ayrshire) or a beginner (Cumberland).^[12][4] In gymnastics an upstart is a swing up to a support position on the bars, from 1909.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1303 – verb, to spring up, to leap to one's feet.^[4][2]
• 1513 – verb, of hair, to rise on end.^[4]
• 1555 – noun, a person newly or suddenly risen in position, a parvenu.^[4][3][6]
• 1565 – adjective, of things, lately come into existence, new-fangled.^[4]
• 1566 – adjective, of persons or families, lately risen to prominence.^[4]
• 1580 – verb, to spring up by growth, to come into existence.^[4]
• 1645 – noun, an upward start or spring (obsolete except in poetry).^[4]
• 1909 – noun, in gymnastics, a swing up to a support on the bars.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or group that has risen suddenly to wealth, power or importance, especially one who behaves arrogantly or claims more importance than is due; a parvenu: The old families resented the young upstart.^[3][11][5]
2. (gymnastics) A kip on the bars.^[3][4]

Adjective

1. Recently or suddenly risen to prominence: an upstart dynasty.^[3][11][4]
2. Recently come into existence; new.^[3][4]
3. Typical of an upstart; presumptuous.^[3][4][11]

Verb

1. (archaic) To start up, especially to spring to one's feet.^[3][11][5]

Word family

• upstartness

Related words

• start
• start-up

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 e f g h i j 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ 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)