Upstanding means respectable and law-abiding. An upstanding citizen, upstanding member of the community, honest and upstanding.
It appears almost only in upstanding citizen, and it is often faintly ironic now, since the phrase is so worn. Its older literal sense is standing up, which survives in the old toast: be upstanding for the loyal toast.
1adjectiveupstandingRespectable and law-abiding.
“He was an upstanding member of the community who helped at the church every week.”
upstanding is a quality.
From upstand, up plus stand. The moral sense grew from standing upright.
Proto-Indo-European
*steh₂-
Proto-Germanic
*standandz — standing
Old English
standende
Middle English
standynge
English
standing
English, today
upstanding
From up- + standing. standing comes from Middle English standynge, stondynge, standende, stondinde, standande, stondande, from Old English standende, stondende, from Proto-Germanic standandz (“standing”), present participle of Proto-Germanic standaną (“to stand”), equivalent to stand + ing.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA