"U" Word Origins

uber

German

From the German word über, meaning "above" or "over," which entered English partly through Nietzsche's term Übermensch ("superman").

uberty

Origin

From Middle French uberté, from Latin ūbertās, from ūber.

ubiquitous

Latin

From Latin ubique ("everywhere"), plus the suffix -ous. Related to the rarer word "ubiety".

ubiquity

Latin

From Latin ubique, meaning 'everywhere'.

Uday

Sanskrit

Borrowed from Sanskrit उदय (udaya).

udder

Latin

From Old English uder, tracing back to a very old Proto-Indo-European root also behind the Latin "uber" and German "Euter" — all meaning the same thing.

udo

Japanese

Borrowed from the Japanese name for the plant.

udon

Chinese

Borrowed from Japanese, where the word likely traces back to the Chinese term for wonton.

Ueda

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese 上田 (Ueda).

Ueno

Japanese

Borrowed from Japanese 上野 (Ueno) or 植野 (Ueno).

ufo

Origin

Reading of UFO as a word in its own right.

ug

Middle English

From Middle English ugge, borrowed from Old Norse uggr, meaning fear or dread — the same root that eventually gave English the word "awe."

uglies

Origin

From ugly + -s.

ugliness

Origin

Formed from "ugly" plus the noun-forming suffix "-ness".

ugly

Middle English

From Middle English "ugly", borrowed from Old Norse "uggligr" meaning "dreadful, fearsome" — related to the word "ug", meaning dread. The sense softened over time from "frightening" to simply "unattractive".

uh

Origin

Onomatopoeia of the natural expression of thought. Compare with er.

uhlan

Origin

From French uhlan, from German Uhlan, from Polish ułan, from Ottoman Turkish اوغلان (oğlan).

UI

English

An initialism of user interface.

ukase

Origin

Borrowed from Russian ука́з (ukáz, “edict, decree”).

uke

Origin

From Japanese 受け (uke), the 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 受(う)ける (ukeru, “to receive, to get”).

Ukraine

Russian

Borrowed via Polish or Russian from an Old East Slavic word usually translated as "borderland", though some scholars argue it originally meant "homeland" or "region".

Ukrainian

Origin

From "Ukraine" plus the suffix "-ian", meaning "belonging to" or "from".

ukulele

Origin

From Hawaiian "ukulele", literally "jumping flea" — combining "uku" ("flea") and "lele" ("to jump"), supposedly describing how fast a player's fingers move.

Ula

Origin

Rare non-standard spelling of Eula.

ulaanbaatar

Origin

A transliteration of Mongolian Улаанбаатар (Ulaanbaatar), a compound of улаан (ulaan, “red”, adjective) and баатар (baatar, “hero”, cognate to bogatyr). The name was adopted in 1924; before that, the city was known by a number of more prosaic names, including Их Хүрээ (Ix Xüree, “Great Camp”), Даа Хүрээ (Daa Xüree, “Great Camp”) (whence, via Chinese, its English names Kulun and Kuren), and Өргөө (Örgöö, “Residence”) (whence Urga).

ulcer

Latin

From Old French "ulcere", from Latin "ulcus".

ulcerousness

Origin

From ulcerous + -ness.

ulna

Latin

From Latin "ulna", meaning "elbow" or "forearm".

Ulrich

Origin

Variant of Ullrich.

Ulster

Irish

The coat is named after the Irish province of Ulster, where the wool it was originally made from was produced.

ulterior

Latin

From Latin "ulterior", meaning "further" or "more distant" — the sense shifted to mean something concealed "beyond" what is visible.

ultimate

Medieval Latin

From Medieval Latin "ultimatus", from Latin "ultimus" meaning "last" or "final".

ultimately

Origin

Formed from "ultimate" plus the adverb-forming suffix "-ly".

ultimatum

Latin

From Latin "ultimatus", meaning "final" — from "ultimus", "last".

ultra

Latin

From Latin "ultra", meaning "beyond".

ultrabook

Origin

From ultra- + book; see notebook computer.

ultramarine

Origin

Borrowed from Medieval Latin ultrāmarīnus, from Latin ultrā (“beyond”) + marīnus (“of or relating to the sea, marine”). By surface analysis, ultra + marine. Noun sense 1 (“pigment”) refers to the fact that lapis lazuli was obtained from foreign countries and hence “beyond the sea”.

ultrasonic

Latin

From "ultra-" ("beyond") plus "sonic" ("relating to sound").

ultrasound

Origin

From "ultra-" ("beyond") plus "sound".

ultraviolet

Origin

From "ultra-" ("beyond") plus "violet", since this radiation lies just beyond the violet end of the visible spectrum.

ululate

Origin

Borrowed from Latin ululō, ululātus, of imitative origin. Cognate with Spanish aullar (“to howl”) and ulular (“to hoot”), and French ululer (“to howl”).

ululation

Origin

] Borrowed from Latin ululātiō, from ululō (“to howl, shriek, yell”) (from a reduplicated Proto-Indo-European imitative root) + -ātiō (suffix forming nouns relating to some action or the result of an action) (from Proto-Indo-European *-tis (suffix forming abstract or action nouns from verb roots)). By surface analysis, ululate + -ion.

Ulysses

Latin

From Latin Ulyssēs, a frequent alternative form of Ulixēs (“Odysseus”), influenced by the Ancient Greek Ὀδυσσεύς (Odusseús). Doublet of Odysseus.

um

Origin

Variant form of -um.

Uma

Japanese

From the name of the Umamusume: Pretty Derby franchise, from Japanese 馬 (uma, “a horse”) + 娘 (musume, “a girl”).

umami

Japanese

From Japanese umami, from umai 'delicious' and mi 'taste'.

Umar

Arabic

From Arabic عُمَر (ʕumar). Doublet of Omar. See also Umari.

umbeset

Origin

From Middle English umbesetten (“to surround”), from Old English ymbsettan (“to set around, surround, beset, encompass”), from Proto-West Germanic *umbisattjan (“to set around, encompass”); equivalent to um- + beset or umbe- + set. Compare also Old English ymbsittan (“to sit around, surround”), Dutch omzetten (“to convert, transpose”), German umsetzen (“to move to another place, convert, transform, transplant, adjust, rearrange”).