Etymology

up what spring

Today it means: What the hell are you saying? Full definition →

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The story

Partial calque of Cantonese 噏乜春 (ngap¹ mat¹ ceon¹, “what the hell are you babbling about”, literally “what testicles are you babbling about”), where 春 (ceon¹) is a homograph meaning both “testicles” and “spring (season)”. By surface analysis, Cantonese up + what + spring.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.