upon
/əˈpɒn/ preposition
Forms uppon vpon vppon
- preposition (higher register or formal) alternative to on in most, though not all, prepositional uses.
Etymology
From Middle English upon, uppon, uppen, from Old English upon, uppon, uppan (“on, upon, up to, against, after, in addition to”), equivalent to up (“adverb”) + on (“preposition”). Cognate with Old Saxon uppan (“upon”), Old High German ūfan, ūffan (“upon”), Icelandic upp á, upp á (“up on, upon”), Swedish uppå (“up on, upon”) (thence Swedish på), Danish på (“up on, upon”), Norwegian på (“up on, upon”).
Webster’s 1913
- preposition On; --used in all the senses of that word, with which it is interchangeable. "Upon an hill of flowers." Chaucer.
Etymology [AS. uppan, uppon; upp up + on, an, on. See Up, and On.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “upon”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details