What does "man up" really mean?

[swee'pea99]

Just the latest in a  long line of vulgar utilitarian Americanisms to muscle their way into our once multi-faceted language on the back of media homogenisation. I saw just at the weekend that playground regional variants of 'truce!' (eg 'fainights', South East; 'Barley', Scotland) have all but been consigned to extinction by universal adoption of the bland and characterless 'time out'. 

A friend of mine was telling me about his son who has Asbergers. 'Pull your socks up!' an unwitting teacher sometimes tells him, at which he of course looks down and says indignantly: 'My socks are up!'

 

[ianrauk]

If people don't know the meaning of 'Man Up', then they should bloody well Man The F*** Up and Man Up.

 

[rich p]

"Suck it up, man" is another one I hate, ".

Even I'm not going there!

 

[John the Monkey]

Instead of "Man Up", resolve to cry "GIRD YOUR LOINS!" whenever the opportunity arises.

 

[Crackle]

I think it means something else entirely down here in cosmopolitan Brighton.

Shouldn't the ageing population harden up, northerly winds and all that?

 

[Yellow Fang]

I may be a sensitive man, a less-shouty-than-other-blokes man, an understanding man, a long-tempered and slow to kick off man, a loving man, an appreciator of beautiful things man, a sometimes crying man, but I am ... essentially (and biologically) ... a man.

Get a pair of testicles and MTFU.

 

[Beardie]

that floppy haired fop from Top Gear is fronting a similar programme here, but he made a right horlicks of a concrete worktop.

While we're on the subject, what is the derivation of 'to make a right horlicks'?

 

[graham56]

What does it mean? Ask Maggot. I'm sure he knew lads from 3 Para mortar Platoon.
By all accounts the had some pretty wild partys. Funny lot those pongos.