Prop up
Meaning
To support something or someone, often temporarily, to prevent it from falling, collapsing, or failing.
Origin
The word 'prop' has sturdy Germanic roots, emerging in Middle English as 'proppe' from similar words in Middle Dutch and Low German, all pointing to something used as a support or a stopper. Imagine a farmer in the 15th century, using a simple wooden beam—a 'prop'—to keep a sagging roof from collapsing, or a gardener steadying a heavily laden fruit tree. The addition of 'up' intensifies this image, making the action explicit: to lift and hold something vertical, preventing its fall. This very literal, physical act of providing external stability readily transferred into our language, giving us a powerful metaphor for bolstering anything from a failing business to a flagging spirit, always with the sense of temporary or necessary aid.
Examples
- They had to prop up the old fence with a few wooden planks to keep it from collapsing entirely.
- The government introduced new subsidies to prop up the struggling domestic automobile industry.