" Doer-upper".

[Maskless]

This is currently enraging me.

English has a perfectly good, purpose-made word: renovate, and yet it seems that people - including presenters of property programmes - have developed an aversion to it and will talk/write instead about 'doing up' a house, and now, increasingly, referring to the property as a 'doer-upper'.

The ugliness of this phrase makes me cringe.

I’d say ´do up’ is a much more quintessentially English expression than ´renovate’. ´renovate’ is obviously latinate and ´do up’ is a typical English phrasal verb. There’s a bit of a history in English of words and constructions of latin origin being thought of as ´better’ than words and phrases of Germanic origin. The classic example is the declaration that infinitives should not be split, which is now widely agreed to be a ridiculous rule to try to retroactively apply to English. (Spot the split there?) Do you think perhaps you’re doing the same thing here?

I quite like the term. It shows the versatility of English - how verbs can be nouns and vice versa.

Hasn't doer-upper come to us from America?

Doesn't bother me but I do find it a bit ugly.

I agree, renovate works perfectly well.

To me, renovate sounds rather impersonal, and something a developer does. I think "doing up" seems a lot more individual for some reason.

For me the expressions do slightly different things.

Renovate sits close to restore, for me. So it's what you might do to a listed building, or an E-type Jag. Piece something back together to the state it was in from new.

Doer-upper is a bit more of a refresh. Those mid-century houses that have modern facelifts, for example. Or someone buying a knackered old house and painting it, replacing kitchens and bathrooms with new, with minimal consideration given to the previous style.

I do agree that the word/expression is a bit clunky. But I think it has a purpose.

First used in 1666, so I'd say it's more likely we took it to America tbf.
@Babyiskickingmyribs explanation is perfect. Phrasal verbs are, if anything, far more "English" than verbs of Latinate derivation.

I agree there's a nuance of meaning difference- but that's the whole point behind PVs anyway. The particle adds something to the original meaning.
Renovate= make like new/freshen
Do Up= improve on what exists now by changing it in some way.

A house can be a doer upper.

A house cannot be a renovate.

🤦🏾‍♀️

@GoldenElephant

A house can be a doer upper.

A house cannot be a renovate.

Yup.

It's just informal language. Nothing wrong with it, I'm trying to think of a more formal "correct" word for a house that needs to be done up but I'm not coming up with much.

Americans prefer "fixer-upper".

This is from my extensive knowledge gained watching "Frozen" nine million times.

@GoldenElephant

A house can be a doer upper.

A house cannot be a renovate.

But it's a person who renovates or does up a house; the house itself does neither. Saying that a house is a doer-upper feels like saying the house is a carpenter or a plumber or a pargeter.

A doer upper is definitely not a person, it is a word used to describe a property @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime 😂 you have made me chuckle!

That it's an invented word for a house that's a bit of a wreck or derelict doesn't make it sound any sillier to me. I have this vision of the house going along to Wickes to buy itself a new bathroom suite...