Thread: what's up

is 'what's up?' a shortened form of 'what have you been up to?'

?

Of course not! All is much more easy.
http://lingvo.yandex.ru/be up/с английского/LingvoUniversal/

I know what that means, i am wondering about the etymology.

It originates as a greeting in the USA I think. I first heard it on an American tv show or film I think ( it was a long time ago when I first heard it ). The 'up' part means 'happening' or 'going on' as part of this greeting. In England we don't say 'what's up' as a greeting since 'what's up' means 'what's wrong?'.

yeah, definitely... )) i spent half a year in Britain, never heard it there))) SRobson, your post made me look 'be up' in the dictionary, now I think these two expressions I was asking about are unrelated. 'What's up' looks like just 'what has happened', 'what's wrong'....

"What's up" is usually a greeting in the states, a very informal one, but can also mean "what's wrong," with specific intonations.

что вверх?

I say that to the Russian 'kids' at work. It confuses them as they are usually taught UK English, not the Americanized version.

General greeting.
I haven't seen (heard from) you in a while. What have you been doing?

What are you doing right now?

What is your current state of mind? (What's up with you?) Detected a heightened emotion.

now it's just... 'sup



Eight years later....

another wassup

so no relation to  'what have you been up to?'  ??

Originally Posted by alexsms

so no relation to  'what have you been up to?'  ??

what's up - как делишки