English

1-up

/ˈwʌn ʌp/
An item that grants the player an extra life in the game, staving off game over by one more try.

    Etymology graph

    • inherited
    • borrowed
    • derived
    • parts
    • meaning component
    • sound component
    • related
    React Flow

    Click a node to zoom in · double-click to open it

    Origin

    "Extra life" sense borrowed from Japanese 1UP(ワンアップ) (wan'appu) and perhaps popularized by Super Mario Bros. (1985); but the term existed earlier in multi-player pinball and other arcade games in the 1960s, where "1Up" and "2Up" were used as flashing notifications to indicate who would play next (or who was "up" next in order). See https://www.inverse.com/gaming/1up-meaning-origin-definition-gaming.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • borrowedJapanese1UP

    Sources