"Screw Up" Idiom Meaning, Origin & History | Superduper English Idioms

0:00 - How to Say, “Screw up.”
0:15 - Examples of “Screw up.”
0:52 - Meaning of “Screw up.”
1:37 - Origin of “Screw up.”
3:09 - More Examples of “Screw up.”
4:40 - Conclusion

“Screw up.”

You’ve no doubt heard someone say that they “screwed up,” or made a big mistake, ruined something.

“I screwed up, I’m sorry,” your partner might tell you after you find out that he let your pet birds escape.

Maybe your favourite restaurant messed up your order last time, “I’m sorry about last week, we won’t screw up your order today!”

“I don’t want to screw this up, you can only apply once,” your sister might be explaining why she’s double-checking her scholarship application.

It’s plain to see that if you “screw up”, you’ve made a blunder, mishandled something or just generally messed something up.

If a thing is destroyed, ruined, irreparable or not working, then it can be described as “screwed up”.

“Don’t mess up,” can be heard as often as “don’t screw up,” and indeed, they have the exact same meaning, though “screw” is a lot less self-explanatory.

According to an article in The New York Times Magazine by William Safire, the word “screw” comes from the Old French word, “escroue” and at the time referred only to the type of screw that holds wood together.

Eventually, like many other things, the idiom, “screw up”, had its origins in the US Army, where during World War II, soldiers would attach “up” to various verbs to create slang; such as foul up, mess up, gum up, louse up, etc.

The idiom, “screw up”, only really gained popularity starting in the 1980s, however; and it was about this time that “screw” also came to commonly be used as a euphemism for sex.

If someone often makes mistakes or messes up, people might start referring to him or her as a “screwup”, which is not a nice thing to call a person.

Suppose you often “screw things up” or are known as a “screwup”, should you let that deter you from trying your best? Definitely not!

We all make mistakes - and some, more than others - but we should not let failure get in the way of success. “Every failure is a step to success,” goes the well-known proverb.

“Finally, my cake is perfect! I screwed it up so many times in the past, I was nervous,” you might be telling your family as you bring out a most beautiful cake.

Perhaps you forgot to turn off the stove, “You screwed up and almost burned the house down, but the important thing is that you were not hurt,” your dad might say.

“My computer is screwed up! The screen is frozen and I can’t reset it,” your child might be complaining to you.

“Don’t screw up this time!” you might jokingly tell a friend who is about to start a piano recital.

So, the next time you want to say that a person has made a mistake or a mess of things, say that they “screwed up” and have ruined, mucked up or destroyed a situation or thing - they have “screwed it up”.

Oh, and don’t forget that “screw up” is slang and should only be used in informal situations!

#superduperenglishidioms #englishidioms #idioms #proverbs

References: https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/08/ma...