This meaning was also used in the sense of closing something, such as a business, and it is also from this use that the longer phrase 'shut up your mouth' likely originated. For example, several passages in the King James Version of the Bible instruct that if a priest determines that a person shows certain symptoms of illness, 'then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague of the scall seven days'.

To say that someone was 'shut up' meant that they were locked up, quarantined, or held prisoner. Its use is generally considered rude and impolite, and may also be considered a form of profanity by some.īefore the twentieth century, the phrase 'shut up' was rarely used as an imperative, and had a different meaning altogether.

The phrase is probably a shortened form of ' shut up your mouth' or ' shut your mouth up'. ' Shut up' is a direct command with a meaning very similar to ' be quiet', but which is commonly perceived as a more forceful command to stop making noise or otherwise communicating, such as talking. World War II–era United States Army poster instructing soldiers on the information they are obligated to give under the Geneva Conventions if taken as a prisoner of war

10 shut up