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upload

UK/ˌʌpˈləʊd/US/ˈʌpˌloʊd/
verbB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,889 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: uploaded, uploading, uploads

To upload is to send a file from your device up onto the internet. Upload a photo, upload speed, still uploading.

Home connections are usually much faster at downloading than uploading, which is why sending a large video takes so long and why video calls suffer first when a line is busy. Uploading and posting are not the same: a file can be uploaded and never published. Note download, its exact opposite.

Definitions of upload

  1. 1verbuploadTo send a file from your device onto the internet.B1+

    “She uploaded the holiday photos so her family could see them online.”

upload is a sending of data.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *leyt- — to go, go forth, die

  2. Proto-Germanic

    *laidō — leading, way

  3. Old English

    lād — course, journey; way, street, waterway; leading, carrying; maintenance, support

  4. Middle English

    lode

  5. English

    load

  6. English, today

    upload

From up- + load. load The sense of “burden” first arose in the 13th century as a secondary meaning of Middle English lode, loade, which had the main significance of “way, course, journey”, from Old English lād (“course, journey; way, street, waterway; leading, carrying; maintenance, support”) (ultimately from Proto-Germanic laidō (“leading, way”), Proto-Indo-European leyt- (“to go, go forth, die”). Cognate with Middle Low German leide (“entourage, escort”), German Leite (“line, course, load”), Swedish led (“way, trail, line”), Icelandic leið (“way, course, route”). As such, load is a a doublet of lode, which has preserved the older meaning. Most likely, the semantic extension of the Middle English substantive arose by conflation with the (etymologically unrelated) verb lade; however, Middle English lode occurs only as a substantive; the transitive verb load (“to charge with a load”) is recorded only in the 16th century (frequently in Shakespeare),

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Technology & Internet

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Related words

  • load
  • reload
  • unload
  • overload
  • upload speed