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U
U the twenty-first letter of the modern English alphabet and the twentieth of the ancient Roman one, a differentiated form of the letter V. Latin manuscripts written in capitals have V only, but other Latin manuscripts also have a modified form of this, resembling u. Both forms occur in OE manuscripts: capital V represents either V or U, and the modified form usually represents the vowel u. In ME the symbols u and v both occur, but without formal distinction of use.
During the 16th century continental printers began to distinguish lower case u as the vowel symbol and v as the consonant symbol, and by the mid 17th century this was also the case in English. Capital V continued to be used for both V and U into the 17th century, but in the course of that century it was replaced, for the vowel, by capital U. From about 1700 the regular forms have been U u for the vowel, and V v for the consonant. However, many dictionaries continued into the 19th century to give items beginning with u or v in a single alphabetic sequence. U is used (of language or social behaviour) to mean characteristic of or appropriate to the upper social classes. The expression is an abbreviation of upper class, and was coined in 1954 by Alan S. C. Ross, professor of linguistics, the term was popularized by its use in Nancy Mitford's Noblesse Oblige (1956). |
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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "U." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "U." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-U.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "U." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-U.html |
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U
U 21st letter of the English alphabet and a letter included the alphabets of in several w European languages. Like f, v, w and y, it was derived from the Semitic letter vaw (a name meaning hook). The Greeks adopted vaw into their alphabet as upsilon. The Romans made two letters out of upsilon – Y and V (see Y). They used V both as the vowel u and the consonant v (originally pronounced like the English w). In English u is a vowel representing many different sounds. Chief among them are the short vowel sounds in bun and bull and the long vowel sounds in burr, flute and lunar. In British English, it is pronounced as if it had a preceding y in certain words – dune, assume, astute. The letter may be silent after g or q (as in guilt and liquor) or it may modify these letters to make the sounds gw or kw (as in language and liquid). The letter q is virtually always followed by u.
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"U." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "U." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-U.html "U." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-U.html |
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U
U 21st letter of the alphabet , corresponding to the Greek upsilon [Gr.,=u without the aspirate]. Until the late Middle Ages the capital was V, the minuscule u, no distinction being made between the consonantal and vocalic uses of the letter. The fixing of modern orthography, however, has restricted u to the vowel, v to the consonant. In phonetics ŭ usually represents a high back rounded vowel, rather like ŏŏ in foot; English ū is a triphthong of y,ŏŏ, and w as in utensil; the Continental ū, or ōō, is a diphthong of ŏŏ and w, as in glue. In chemistry, U is the symbol of the element uranium . |
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"U." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "U." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-U1.html "U." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-U1.html |
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U
U1 / yoō/ (also u) • n. (pl. Us or U's ) 1. the twenty-first letter of the alphabet. ∎ denoting the next after T in a set of items, categories, etc. 2. (U) a shape like that of a capital U, esp. a cross section: [in comb.] U-shaped glaciated valleys. U2 • symb. the chemical element uranium. U3 • adj. inf., chiefly Brit. (of language or social behavior) characteristic of or appropriate to the upper social classes: U manners. U4 / oō/ • n. a Burmese title of respect before a man's name, equivalent to Mr.: U Thien San. |
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"U." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "U." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-u.html "U." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-u.html |
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u
u • abbr. Physics denoting quantum states or wave functions that change sign on inversion through the origin. The opposite of g. • symb. [in comb.] (in units of measurement) micro- (10−6): direct readout of concentration in ug or mg/l. |
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"u." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "u." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-u020.html "u." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-u020.html |
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JOHN BOWKER. "U." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN BOWKER. "U." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-U.html JOHN BOWKER. "U." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-U.html |
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U
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JAMES MacKILLOP. "U." A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JAMES MacKILLOP. "U." A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O70-U.html JAMES MacKILLOP. "U." A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. 2004. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O70-U.html |
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U
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Cite this article
"U." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "U." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-U2.html "U." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-U2.html |
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u
u (ital.) Electricity, symbol for instantaneous potential difference
• (ital.) Optics, symbol for object distance • (ital.) Thermodynamics specific internal energy • Meteorol., symbol for ugly threatening sky • Physics ungerade (German: odd; in spectroscopy) • Chem., symbol for unified atomic mass unit • Physics up (a quark flavour) • (ital.) Physics, symbol for a velocity component or speed |
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FRAN ALEXANDER , PETER BLAIR , JOHN DAINTITH , ALICE GRANDISON , VALERIE ILLINGWORTH , ELIZABETH MARTIN , ANNE STIBBS , JUDY PEARSALL , and SARA TULLOCH. "u." The Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. FRAN ALEXANDER , PETER BLAIR , JOHN DAINTITH , ALICE GRANDISON , VALERIE ILLINGWORTH , ELIZABETH MARTIN , ANNE STIBBS , JUDY PEARSALL , and SARA TULLOCH. "u." The Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O25-u.html FRAN ALEXANDER , PETER BLAIR , JOHN DAINTITH , ALICE GRANDISON , VALERIE ILLINGWORTH , ELIZABETH MARTIN , ANNE STIBBS , JUDY PEARSALL , and SARA TULLOCH. "u." The Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations. 1998. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O25-u.html |
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