Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
downer, upper (nn.)
These two are slang and may already be somewhat faded. A downer is a drug or other depressant and refers particularly to a barbiturate or similar drug. The figurative use is also slang and is widely encountered; it means “any experience or news that depresses”: Last night’s meeting was a real downer. An upper is also slang, with exactly the opposite meaning: drugs or other stimulants that exhilarate, such as amphetamines, are uppers, and the figurative sense could be applied to any cheering experience. There is also an older, Standard sense of upper, meaning “an upper berth in a Pullman railroad car or other travel sleeping accommodation”: We each had an upper on the trip to Cleveland. (The lower berth is called a lower, not a downer.) The idiom on one’s uppers means that the soles of one’s shoes are worn through, so that what’s left is just the upper parts of them, the uppers; hence, He’s on his uppers means “he’s down and out.”
