Amping or Ramping?

Question

The two expressions "ramping up" and "amping up" are out and about and flourishing in the vernacular. I could be wrong (I often am) but they seem to mean the same thing.
Comments?

"When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand." ? Raymond Chandler

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]The two expressions "ramping up" and "amping up" are out and about and flourishing in the vernacular. I could be wrong (I often am) but they seem to mean the same thing. Comments?[/nq]
Both are used as synonyms for "increasing," viz. are current metaphors.

Their origins seem dissimilar. Amping seems to be derived from the act of increasing output level (volume) of a sound amplifier. Ramping up may combine references to (1) animal ramping or rampaging (cf. heraldry) viz. a display of aggression: and (2) ramps as entry points to sports arenas etc., where displays of aggression are often enjoyed.

Neither metaphor seems to add any meaning not already in the word "increase." Usage hints at the secondary associations speakers want to present, e.g. informality and lack of condescension, being in harmony with hip and aggressive people, etc.

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]The two expressions "ramping up" and "amping up" are out ... am) but they seem to mean the same thing. Comments?[/nq]
[nq:1]Both are used as synonyms for "increasing," viz. are current metaphors. Their origins seem dissimilar. Amping seems to be ... display of aggression: and (2) ramps as entry points to sports arenas etc., where displays of aggression are often enjoyed.[/nq]
I doubt that it has anything to do with rampaging (which has drifted quite some way from the root's meaning of "climbing") or with conflicts occuring on ramps. I understand "ramping up" to mean "causing to increase gradually", the figurative raising taking place in the same manner as when using an inclined plane as opposed to sudden vertical lifting. It's often used in such contexts as the testing of machinery, or the introduction of a new method, implying a continuous process of evaluation or adaptation.
"Amping up" seems more to emphasize the application of force or power in causing the increase, and it needn't be tentative or gradual.

Odysseus

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]The two expressions "ramping up" and "amping up" are out ... am) but they seem to mean the same thing. Comments?[/nq]
[nq:1]Both are used as synonyms for "increasing," viz. are current metaphors. Their origins seem dissimilar. Amping seems to be ... display of aggression: and (2) ramps as entry points to sports arenas etc., where displays of aggression are often enjoyed.[/nq]
Consider a quantifiable phenomenon, such as ticket sales for a sports team. Plot sales versus time on a graph, with time as the horizontal axis. If the recent trend is (to a first approximation) monotonically increasing nearly linearly but not terribly steeply, the graph at that pont looks like a ramp, and the measured phenomenon is "ramping up". As opposed to "spiking" or "taking off exponentially" or "jumping", which would be different shapes.
Now apply that metaphorically and/or sloppily to unquantifiable (or quantifiable but not yet had anybody bother to measure) phenomena, and "ramping up" gives a feel for the general rate and pattern of increase. ("Ramping up" staffing for a project would mean gradually adding staff, not one sudden large group of hirings; audience enthusiasm "ramping up" would be steadily and smoothly increasing.)
Things can "ramp up" for no apparent reason or external reasons, (intransitive) or they can "be ramped up" (transitive) by someone who has a hand on the controls (the purse strings, the throttle, the volume ****; whatever control applies to the situation).
To me (central MD, US) "amping up" implies that somebody is deliberately increasing the intensity (i.e. controlling some sort of real or notioal "amplifier"); that the increase is not some natural or accidental phenomenon, but the result of intentional action. It also doesn't feel constrained to steady increases the intensity might be ramped up by someone who is amping it up, but also might surge instead of ramping up.

D. Glenn Arthur Jr./The Human Vibrator, (Email Removed) Due to hand/wrist problems my newsreading time varies so I may miss followups. "Being a man means knowing that one has a choice not to act like a 'man'." http://www.panix.com/~dglenn/ http://dglenn.livejournal.com

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Both are used as synonyms for "increasing," viz. are current ... sports arenas etc., where displays of aggression are often enjoyed.[/nq]
[nq:1]Consider a quantifiable phenomenon, such as ticket sales for a sports team. Plot sales versus time on a graph, with ... has a hand on the controls (the purse strings, the throttle, the volume ****; whatever control applies to the situation).[/nq]
Well put.
[nq:1]To me (central MD, US) "amping up" implies that somebody is deliberately increasing the intensity (i.e. controlling some sort of ... intensity might be ramped up by someone who is amping it up, but also might surge instead of ramping up.[/nq]
You don't think "amping up" could simply be a thinko or a typo for "ramping up", as I do?

Regards,
Chuck Riggs,
who speaks AmE,lives near Dublin, Ireland
and usually spells in BrE

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Consider a quantifiable phenomenon, such as ticket sales for a ... "taking off exponentially" or "jumping", which would be different shapes.[/nq]
[nq:2]To me (central MD, US) "amping up" implies that somebody ... it up, but also might surge instead of ramping up.[/nq]
[nq:1]You don't think "amping up" could simply be a thinko or a typo for "ramping up", as I do?[/nq]
Doh! Sorry; yes, it can be a thinko (or a typo) as well. That's just not the explanation that comes to mind first when I run across it the one I described above is. If that meaning seems incongruous in context, only then do I start wondering whether it's a thinko.
But yes, I agree that in can be so.

D. Glenn Arthur Jr./The Human Vibrator, (Email Removed) Due to hand/wrist problems my newsreading time varies so I may miss followups. "Being a man means knowing that one has a choice not to act like a 'man'." http://www.panix.com/~dglenn/ http://dglenn.livejournal.com

Amping or Ramping?

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