pick up

P

pick up (phrasal verb)
/ˈpɪk ˌʌp/

Surprisingly, the phrase “pick up” has many meanings beyond just lifting something. It can refer to improving, learning, collecting, noticing, continuing after a pause, starting a conversation, or buying something quickly. It is a highly flexible phrasal verb.

Meaning

• Gain or acquire something, especially through learning or experience.
• Improve or increase in speed, strength, or activity.
• Lift or take something from a surface or ground.
• Collect someone or something from a place.
• Detect or sense a signal, sound, or information.
• Restart something after a pause or interruption.
• Contract or catch an illness or infection.
• Initiate a romantic or sexual conversation with someone (informal).
• Acquire casually or without formal effort.
• Arrest or apprehend someone (informal).
• Buy or obtain something quickly or cheaply.
• Resume contact or continue a relationship.

Synonyms: acquire; collect; lift; gather; resume; recover; apprehend; detect; obtain

Example Sentences

1. She managed to pick up Spanish during her trip to Mexico.
2. Sales began to pick up after the new marketing campaign.
3. Please pick up the book from the floor.
4. I will pick up the kids from school at 3 PM.
5. The radio can pick up stations from hundreds of miles away.
6. Let’s pick up the discussion where we left off.
7. He might have picked up a cold on the flight.
8. He tried to pick up a girl at the bar.
9. I managed to pick up some tips on cooking from my grandmother.
10. The police will pick up the suspect tonight.
11. I’ll pick up some groceries on my way home.
12. We should pick up our friendship again.

Origin and History

The idiomatic term “pick up” is a fascinating example of how language evolves, acquiring a multitude of meanings over time while retaining a core sense of interaction or acquisition. Its journey from a simple physical action to a complex array of metaphorical uses is quite extensive.

The Foundation: Literal Action

The earliest understanding of “pick up” stems from its literal meaning: to lift and take something with the fingers or hands. This fundamental sense is rooted in combining the verb “pick,” which originally meant “to peck” or “to prick” in early Old English and Old Norse, and later evolved to mean “to pluck with the hand or fingers,” with the adverb “up,” indicating an upward direction or completion of an action.

This basic meaning has been in use since at least the early 14th century in English. Imagine someone “picking up” a dropped item or “picking up” berries from a bush. This concrete image forms the bedrock for all subsequent, more abstract meanings.

Expansion of Meaning: Acquisition and Collection

From this literal sense, “pick up” quickly expanded to imply obtaining or procuring something casually, as opportunity presents itself. This shift appeared around the 1510s. This could refer to gathering things, like supplies or information, without a specific, formal plan.

By the late 17th century (around the 1690s), the phrase began to describe taking a person into a vehicle or vessel. This is where we see the meaning of “picking up” passengers or someone hitchhiking. This also developed into the idea of making acquaintance or taking someone along, particularly for social or romantic purposes.

Growth and Improvement: Intransitive Uses

In the 18th century, a significant development occurred with the intransitive use of “pick up,” meaning to improve gradually, regain vigor, or strengthen. This usage is seen by 1741. This refers to situations where things, like health or business, show signs of getting better. For example, “business is starting to pick up.”

Further evolutions of this meaning include gaining speed (by 1922) and recovering or restoring order (by 1861, as in “tidy up”). The idea of “picking up the pieces” after a difficult event, meaning to recover and rebuild, also stems from this notion of improvement and reassembly, reflecting the literal act of gathering fragments of a broken object to reassemble them.

Modern Interpretations and Specialized Uses

The 19th and 20th centuries saw even more specialized uses emerge:

• Arrest: By 1871, “pick up” gained the meaning of “to arrest” or “take into custody.”
• Learning: It also came to mean acquiring knowledge or skills informally, such as “picking up a new language.”
• Payment: In the mid-20th century, specifically by 1945, it began to mean “to pay” for something, like a check or a tab.
• Informal Games: In the early 20th century (by 1905), “pickup” (often as a single word or hyphenated) referred to a game played by informal teams chosen on the spot. This led to the adjective sense of “composed of such things as are immediately available” by 1859.
• Vehicles: The term “pickup truck” came into use in the 1920s, with “pickup” referring to the small truck itself by 1937, likely alluding to its function of “picking up” loads.
• Acquaintanceship: The idea of a “pickup line,” a rehearsed remark used to initiate a romantic or sexual encounter, is recorded from 1979, drawing from the older slang use of “pick (someone) up” for casual sexual encounters which dates back to at least the 1600s.

Origin Country

Based on historical linguistic evidence, the phrase “pick up” has its roots firmly in the English language. Its various meanings developed and spread within English-speaking regions, particularly in England, and then evolved further as the language expanded globally.

Earliest Printed Record

The earliest recorded use of “pick up” as a verbal phrase, meaning “lift and take with the fingers,” dates back to the early 14th century. While a precise first printed instance of every single meaning is difficult to pinpoint due to the nature of historical record-keeping, the evolution of the phrase can be traced through texts from that period. For the noun form “pickup,” a printed record appears as early as 1846.

Phrasal Verbs, Up