Meanings
- formalnot comparableobsoleteuncommonUp there; thereupon; upon that.
This place of endearment! How it is clear! And how they cast their spells upon, the fronds that thereup float, the bookstaff branchings!
1939, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, page 5713 more examples
I was to preach in the old chapel, Halifax, which is much larger than the new one; and the trustees had set collectors at the foot of the gallery stairs to take silver from all who should go thereup.
1834, chapter XI, in The Life and Labours of Adam Clarke, London: John Stephens, page 295Tho led I him to a place where I told him there were seven hens and a cock which sat on a perch and were much fat and there stood a falldoor by and we climbed thereup.
1960, William Caxton, transl., edited by Donald B. Sands, The History of Reynard the Fox, Harvard University Press; Oxford University Press, page 74If it be said that the track is wrongfully pursued, then must he who traces the cattle lead to the ‘staeth’, and there himself one of six unchosen men, who are true, make oath that he according to folk-right [customary law] makes lawful claim on the land, as his cattle went thereup.
1962, W. O. Hassall, “Domesticated Animals”, in W. O. Hassall, compiler, How They Lived: An Anthology of original accounts written before 1485, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, page 8
Origin
- Middle Englishthere uppe
- Englishthereup
From Middle English there uppe. Equivalent to there + up.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
thereup. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thereup
“thereup.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thereup. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “thereup,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thereup.
Source: thereup on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.