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Chris -- 2018-04-11
The phrase “up to,†as in “it’s up to you whether…†gets altered to “opt to.†I came across this switch in some email correspondence with a Spanish-speaking person who is studying English. The substitution seems to be well-established—a score of examples on the web. Here are three of them:
Post on a software forum: “It’s opt to your school how many teachers and students are involved.â€
Advice (?) on a language learning forum: “It’s opt to you. You can do either, add or not add.â€
Description of a quit smoking app: “It’s opt to you to define your goals – be it to control, reduce or quit – and this app will try to support you to walk the line,â€
I wondered whether the “up†in “it’s up to X†might also get changed into “apt.†It does. Examples:
Social forum contribution: “You can have a lot of relationships but you just have one love story, so it’s apt to you to preserve this love or to lose it forever.â€
Post on a religious forum: “if it is not worth believing, it’s apt to youâ€
ebAy description: “Attachable to cell phone, bag, key and everywhere you want. It’s apt to you!â€
In both of these replacements, we have a more common word (“upâ€) standing in for a less common word (“opt,†“apt), which is a little strange. However, the use of “up to†in the phrase “it’s up to you†is one of the lesser-used idiomatic applications of the adverb “up.†The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (2nd edition) says that this use of “up to,†in the sense of “dependent on,†began to appear in speech and writing at the start of the twentieth century. When it appeared, it joined, according to the OED, nine other idiomatic uses of “up to.†(The greatest advantage to knowing English is that you don’t have to learn it. On behalf of English speakers everywhere, I would like to offer my sincere apologies for what we have done to the language.)
In chasing down these references, I also noticed a minor tendency to replace “it’s apt to X†with “it’s opt to X,†as in this example:
Music forum: “I wouldn’t really say ‘all time’. It’s opt to change.â€
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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