Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

I know there was a thread about this some time back, but I couldn't find it.

I believe the consensus was that "pushed back" and "pushed forward" were used inconsistently, and that logic dictated "back" meant earlier (on the timeline) and "forward" meant later, in the future. Not like language is always based on logic.

Here is why I think the standard usage (pushed back = delayed) is logical:   When you physically push something back, you are increasing the space between you and it.   The metaphor is about the action - the push, not the direction. "Back" is a throwaway word.

Yet, I've never heard of "pulling a meeting forward," but certaining "moving a meeting forward."   Forward only seems to make sense in contrast to  "push back."    If that were true, we should be able to use  Google NGram Viewer to demonstrate that "pushing back" preceeded "move forward," but finding phrases to compare is tricky. "Push back" and "move forward" are too general to assume they are being used for time.   I tried "meeting back" and "meeting forward" (allowing for any verb to be used)  - and the results were exactly counter to what I expected.   Hmmm...

To further confuse things,  when you move a meeting to an earlier date or time, you "push it up" or "move it up", which I assume is from the layout of a date book.   But I've never heard of moving a meeting down.