Is “mug up” a Tagalog/Filipino phrase?
“Mug” is an English word, I believe, representing a big cup used for drinking beer, or coffee. This also stands for an action word, which means to gang up on a fellow and do him physical harm. There is also “mugshot”, if I am not mistaken, which pertains to a picture taken of a felon down at the police station. There is, however, a Tagalog prefix, which is :”Mag”. Any action word which begins with this prefix, means to undertake the action in the immediate or distant future. In my considered opinion, it is either “Mug” or “Mag”, most probably the former, used in the context by Filipino workers, as an invitation to raise your mug, as a toast, “up” the air. But if you make this toast, and then do the Vulcan way of separating the fingers to say “Live long and prosper”, your mug would drop and spill coffee all over you, so be a nice human and forget all about it.
