Chin up!
idiom and interjection; informal

- Used to encourage someone to remain cheerful during difficulties

- A shortened form of keep your chin up: remain calm or cheerful in an unpleasant situation

- An instruction to face adversity with courage and determination

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary, Dictionary.com

—
PHRASE ORIGIN

"Keep your chin up" appeared in American English around the beginning of the twentieth century. An example has been traced to Pennsylvania’s Evening Democrat in October 1900; the optimistic sense is well documented by 1913. The shorter encouragement "chin up!" followed naturally.

The image is physical: sadness, shame and defeat make the head droop, while raising the chin suggests confidence and resolution. Chin comes from Old English cin or cinn, a Germanic word related to Dutch kin and German Kinn. Up is equally ancient.

The hyphenated noun chin-up, meaning the exercise performed on a horizontal bar, developed separately. It describes lifting the body until the chin reaches the bar—not an unusually strenuous attempt at optimism.

—
THE WORST BOXING ADVICE

In a boxing ring, “chin up” is terrible advice.

A raised chin exposes the jaw and makes it easier for a blow to turn the head. Research into boxing knockouts has found that a hook to the side of the jaw is a frequent culprit, producing rapid rotation in the horizontal plane. Uppercuts may also cause unconsciousness; straight punches to the face are less likely to do so.

The jaw itself isn’t an off switch. The danger comes from the sudden acceleration of the head. Because brain tissue is soft, rapid rotational movement can stretch and deform it. Researchers therefore measure not only the force of a punch but also the linear and rotational acceleration it produces.

Neck muscles can help restrict head movement when a boxer sees the punch and braces. A blow that arrives unseen may be particularly dangerous because those muscles haven’t prepared to resist it. Coaches consequently teach boxers to tuck the chin and keep their eyes on their opponent.

Language has cheerfully reversed the physical lesson. Outside the ring, a lifted head suggests resolution rather than vulnerability: the gaze is forward and the person hasn’t retreated. Inside the ring, that same pose offers an opponent a useful target.

Helga & Paul Smith

—
SYNONYMS

buck up, cheer up, CHIN UP, hang in there, keep your spirits up, take heart

—

SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“CHIN UP! We still have Plans B and C if this doesn't work out.”

____________________

PLEASE SUPPORT US

On evenings and weekends, I research and write your daily OWAD newsletter together with Helga (my lovely wife and business partner) and our insightful daughter Jennifer. It remains FREE, AD-FREE, and ALIVE thanks to voluntary donations from appreciative readers.

If you aren't already, please consider supporting us — even a small donation, equivalent to just 1-cup-of-coffee a month, would help us in covering expenses for mailing, site-hosting, maintenance, and service.

Just head over to DonorBox:

https://donorbox.org/owad-q4-2023-5
   or
Bank transfer:

Paul Smith

IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40
(Important: please state as 'Verwendungszweck': "OWAD donation" and the email address used to subscribe to OWAD)

Thanks so much,
Paul Smith