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In the context of traveling, I have heard of and used the phrase "coming down" when referring to a journey from one place to another place that is further south. Perhaps, it's because I have always related the "down" part to "from north to south". For example:

My cousin in New York is coming down to visit me (in Atlanta) next week.

Recently, a friend of mine used the phrase to refer to any journey regardless of the direction of travel. For example:

She is coming down from Miami to join us in Atlanta.

Is the phrase used only to refer to traveling south? Or is it not related to the direction?

pnvn
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    Related question here. – Brian Hooper Jul 16 '13 at 21:46
  • @Brian Hooper: I think it's basically the same question. Closevoting as a dup. Of course, you can reasonably go *up to Oxford* even if you live north of it. – FumbleFingers Jul 16 '13 at 22:53
  • @FumbleFingers No, it is not a dupe. That is only about London, not about English in general. – tchrist Jul 16 '13 at 23:16
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    @FumbleFingers I disagree. The other question relates specifically to "going up/down to London", which has it's own specific terminology in some instances, as mentioned in the question. I was taught that one always goes up to London, wherever in England you start from. – TrevorD Jul 16 '13 at 23:17
  • @TrevorD: I think you had a peculiarly opinionated teacher. You tend to go "up" to places which are bigger, more northerly, or simply at a higher elevation. But no such usage is consistent enough to be something that ought to be "taught". And as regards whether it's a dup or not, most of the answers to the earlier question address the general case, not just London. – FumbleFingers Jul 16 '13 at 23:23
  • @FumbleFingers I really do think the general usage is a mapwise one that reflects our current habit of orienting our maps such that the cardinal direction north is in the “up” direction. Portuguese is interesting because it has verbs both for orientar(-se) and also for nortear. – tchrist Jul 16 '13 at 23:30
  • @tchrist: Any one individual's opinion is likely to be highly skewed by their personal circumstances. People go up, down or into town if they live in the suburbs, and local geography or idiomatic preference may be far more important than compass directions. All possible influences are just tendencies. A Welsh friend of mine always speaks of coming up to visit me, despite the fact that she lives slightly further north than me (near Cardiff). That's because I live within 20 miles of London, and she always thinks you go *up to London* from Wales. – FumbleFingers Jul 16 '13 at 23:43
  • @FumbleFingers Cardiff is up from Bristol, sure, but from London, dunno: the east–west component should dominate. But really, in North America up/down is always north/south if you live in the flatlands; only if you live in the mountains is it actually up and down, and sometimes not even then. Honest! Ask anybody. – tchrist Jul 16 '13 at 23:45
  • @tchrist: But that's my whole point - she doesn't actually go to London! But just because from her perspective I'm close to London, that's what determines her usage (completely overriding both compass direction and the fact that she lives at a considerably higher elevation above sea level than me). She effectively makes her choice of preposition "by proxy", since it's not directly justified by any rationales covered so far. (Or maybe she just thinks I live in a more "up-market" house, I don't really know! :) – FumbleFingers Jul 16 '13 at 23:50
  • @FumbleFingers Well, 3 of the answers in the other question support me! But I do agree that the usage may be dying out, or possibly peculiar to the S.E.? I live south of London anyway, so it's also up in the sense of going north! – TrevorD Jul 16 '13 at 23:58
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    @TrevorD: I'm also south (we could be close neighbours!), but many decades ago my girlfriend's parents lived in Rickmansworth (just north), and they used to go up to London. I'm not going to go analysing and counting all the answers on the earlier question, but I think the top-voted one somewhat specifically addresses the special case of *up/down trains. And at a cursory glance many of the rest seem to support my assertion that any principle of usage here is at best a tendency*. – FumbleFingers Jul 17 '13 at 00:10

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Normally going down refers to travelling south, just as going up normally refers to travelling north. That’s why it’s called Upstate New York: because it is north of the core metro area. That’s what makes it up: the north part. It almost always works this way.

Almost — but not always. When you live in the mountains, these things take on a more literal meaning, because altitude’s Z-axis is a lot more important there than the X- and Y-axes of longitude and latitude.

For example, if I go up to Nederland Colorado from down in Boulder — which is something people say and do all the time — that means travelling west from here, not travelling south. It’s also 3,000 thousand feet higher, which is all that counts in these parts. It’s up because it’s, um, up.

But flatlanders, lacking a significant Z-axis, always use up and down to correspond to north and south. (They forget the times when maps were oriented to the east. :)

For a completely different take on up, see the Uptown of various cities.

tchrist
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  • On Long Island in New York, traveling from the Eastern End to the west (actually WSW), you are said to be going up island (accompanied by a mild sneer). There is a similar configuration on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. This may be based on the concept of going down* to the sea*. In both of these cases, the seafaring communities are on the extreme east ends (including the norther parts of those east ends). – bib Jul 16 '13 at 23:50
  • Don't forget about the Upper and Lower Nile. That always confused me. And of course, the Devil went down to Georgia, which could be understood to mean south or in terms of elevation (down to the underworld). – Ellie Kesselman Aug 01 '13 at 02:34
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What "comes down" to my mind when I read "to come down" is something descending from above ("up and down"), instead of "north and south". Therefore, I think it's just a colloquial expression when used in a context of travel. (It does not literally means "to go to the south").

Ericson Willians
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    It may be worth noting, however, that the phrases "go down" and "go up" do generally indicate direction. A U.S. resident, for example, would typically speak of "going up to Toronto" or "going down to Mexico," but not vice versa. – M J Hartwell Jul 16 '13 at 21:22
  • So, what is your interpretation of it in the context of travel? Is it air travel because an airplane "descends from above"? – pnvn Jul 16 '13 at 21:24
  • One could "go up to Toronto by using an Airplane", or could "go up to the sky by using an Airplane". I think that the first one is more "colloquial" and less literal. – Ericson Willians Jul 16 '13 at 21:28
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    @pvn: Tempting as that etymology may sound, the phrase actually antedates air travel by more than two centuries. See, for example, its use in the diary of Samuel Pepys on 26 June 1661. – M J Hartwell Jul 16 '13 at 21:41
  • Hey how come in Portuguese only orientar and nortear exist, but no sulear or ocidentar? :) – tchrist Jul 16 '13 at 23:37
  • I have no idea haha, we don't even use these two verbs. But you're right, there's no "sulear" or "ocidentar", and it does not make any sense. Actually, we use the verb "orientar", but in the sense of "to guide". – Ericson Willians Jul 16 '13 at 23:48