11 August 2021
Upsidaisy is an exclamation used when helping someone rise to their feet, lifting someone up, or giving someone a boost over an obstacle. It’s often used in reference to a lifting a child but can be used for adults as well. Upsidaisy is spelled in a number of different ways. Other variants include: upsydaisy, oops-a-daisy, and whoops-a-daisy.
The up- element has an obvious origin, it refers to the action of rising. The -a-daisy element is more mysterious. This latter portion of the word is likely simply nonsense syllables, akin to the interjections lackadaisy and alack-a-day, which despite being very different in meaning are strikingly similar in form and in part of speech. Wright’s 1905 dialect dictionary records the variant upaday in use in Northamptonshire, East Anglia and in America, but whether this is an older form or a later variant is unknown.
The earliest known use of one of the variants is in a January 1711 letter by Jonathan Swift to Esther Johnson, a.k.a. “Stella,” a close friend, possible lover, and maybe even his wife by a secret marriage—the exact nature of their relationship is a matter of debate. Swift is using the word in the context of rising from a chair or perhaps his bed:
I wish my cold hand was in the warmest place about you, young women, I'd give ten guineas upon that account with all my heart, faith; oh, it starves my thigh; so I'll rise, and bid you good morrow, my ladies both, good morrow. Come stand away, let me rise: Patrick, take away the candle. Is there a good fire? --So—up a-dazy
Another early appearance is in William Toldervy’s 1756 The History of Two Orphans:
Throw made not any answer, but in attempting to go out of the room, struck his foot against a chair, which made him reel; and putting out his hands, in order to save himself, he almost laid hold of Miss Honeyflower’s arm, which Tom Heartley taking for design, gave Mr. Throw that blow in the face, which brought him sprawling upon the floor. “You see how it is, said Culverin, we had better have gone before, friend Throw; but, however, I’ll help you up again.” This noble resolution he was about to put into practice, and stooping down for that purpose; “Up-a-daisey,[”] said Miss Bella, and then, with all her strength gave him a push behind, which brought the old warrior’s honour to the dust; his wig flew off, which discovered the baldness of his pate, and his nose having reached the Portland stone, which lay before the fire, rather sooner than his hands, a crimson stream came pouring plentifully down from that fountain.
Early print appearances like these are often in adult speech, but that does not preclude an origin in children’s slang. Upsidaisy could very well have got its start among children, which would likely have gone unrecorded, only appearing in the written record when adults started to use it.
Sources:
Green’s Dictionary of Slang, 2021, s.v. upsadaisy!, excl.
Merriam-Webster. “The 'Oops' and 'Whoops' In 'Upsy-daisy.'” Accessed 20 July 2021.
Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989, s.v. upsidaisy, int., up-a-daisy, int.
Swift, Jonathan. “Letter 15” (31 January 1710–11). Journal to Stella, vol. 1 of 2. Harold Williams, ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1948, 181. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Toldervy, William. The History of Two Orphans, vol. 2 of 4. London: William Owen, 1756, 23–24. Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO).
Wright, Joseph, ed. The English Dialect Dictionary, vol. 6 of 6. Oxford: Henry Frowde, 1905, 329.