'uppers' originates from English, specifically the word 'upper,' where 'up' meant 'above, aloft' and the suffix '-er' marked the comparative sense 'higher.' The slang noun sense of 'upper' meaning 'stimulant' developed in 20th‑century American English.

'upper' formed in Middle English from 'up' + comparative '-er'; the noun use for the shoe part arose in the 19th century as 'upper (leather),' and the plural 'uppers' became standard for shoe components. In the mid‑1900s, plural 'uppers' also spread as the common term for stimulant pills, yielding the modern English 'uppers.'

Initially, it meant 'higher/located above'; later it extended to the noun 'upper' for the top part of a shoe and then to 'uppers' for stimulants, broadening from physical position to effects that 'raise' energy or mood.