Ever wake up in the middle of the night and ask a question to yourself? This happens often to me.

Last night, I woke up, got up, stood up, sat down, flushed, turned on the water, turned off the water… Up. Down. Up. Down.

“You’re fucking crazy Robin!”

Yes parasite, for sure. Anyway, the question: Why do people use the phrase, ‘shut up’?

Sure a person could Google it but Google has it’s own agenda to own all data, history, and future of the world. Besides, it is fun to try and find the answer by ones self.

The word, shut, of course means to close. The word, up, is obvious. Put the two together though, and it makes no sense.

Now, ‘shut down’ seems logical. To turn off a machine or stop an activity that is ongoing. That one is easy.

So, back to…

“Uh, Robin?”

Yes parasite?

“You’re still fucking crazy!”

Yes I am… now, shut up please.

Anyway, shut up, is used to say “Stop talking.” So, shut, of course, means to stop… but the word, up, used in such a fashion is a head scratcher. The thought I had was to raise the lower jaw bone into the ‘up’ position thus stopping the talking.

Go ahead, say a word and notice the position of your lower jaw when talking.

“Seriously dude, I think it is  you that needs to shut up. And, before you yell at me, I’m going to go and eat that secret bag of chips you stashed.”

Go for it. I’m gonna go now and ponder the mystery of missing socks in the dryer.