uptick

Etymology

It is formed from English up- + tick.^[2][3][4][5] Etymonline derives it instead from a verbal phrase formed with the adverb up and the verb tick, in reference to recording mechanisms.^[6] The American Heritage Dictionary explains it by the plus sign that marked a rise in a stock's price on the boards above the trading stations of the stock market,^[7] and Hendrickson connects it with the stock ticker or ticker tape machine.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stock-market transaction at a higher price than the previous one in the same security: 1952, in the Salt Lake Tribune.^[2] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1950–55.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a technical term of the stock market, the opposite of a downtick.^[2][4] It was then generalized to any upward trend or increase, especially a small one:^[2][3][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1955,^[4] Etymonline to 1962 as an economists' term,^[6] and the OED's first quotation is from Time in 1970.^[2] Hendrickson calls it a 1980s term for an upturn, especially in the economy.^[8] The Shorter Oxford labels it chiefly American.^[3]

Timeline

• 1952 – a stock-market transaction at a higher price than the preceding one in the same security.^[2]
• 1955 – an increase or rise, in Merriam-Webster Unabridged's dating.^[4] Etymonline dates the sense "upward trend" to 1962,^[6] and the OED's first quotation is from 1970.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An increase or rise, especially a small one: The survey showed an uptick in bicycle sales.^[4][9][3]
2. (stock market) A transaction in a security at a price higher than that of the previous transaction in the same security; also, a price quoted above the previous one.^[4][2]

Related words

• downtick
• tick
• ticker

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins