the 21st letter of the modern English, and the 20th of the ancient Roman alphabet, was in the latter identical in form and origin with V (q.v.), the same symbol being employed both as a vowel and a consonant. In Latin MSS. written in capitals the form V is retained; but in uncial MSS., of which the earliest specimens belong to the third or fourth century, the modified form [symbol] appears, and is continued in the later half-uncial (from c. 500) and minuscule MSS. (from the eighth century) as u. In Anglo-Saxon MSS. the latter form (u) was regularly employed as a minuscule to denote the vowel u, the corresponding form in capitals being either V or u. In early MSS. u and uu are also employed with the value of w, and very rarely u in place of b (later f) to denote intervocalic v; in late MSS. the substitution of u for f (= v) becomes fairly common, usually between vowels but sometimes also initially. In ME., after continental usage, the two symbols u and v were employed, but without clear distinction in value, each of them being used to denote either the vowel u or the consonant v. The practice with regard to the employment of the two forms varied considerably, but the general tendency was to write v initially and u in other positions, regardless of phonetic considerations, e.g., vnder, vpon, vse but cure, full, huge, and vain, vice, vile but saue, euer, giuen. For the sake of clearness, however, v was frequently preferred to u, especially in conjunction with n and m, as in tvne, rovnd, mvse. (In Scottish MSS. intervocalic u with the value of v is much rarer than in English, its place being largely taken by f, ff, v or w.) The early printers followed the common usage with regard to u and v in small letters; in capitals they employed only one symbol, viz. U in black letter, and V in Roman. During the sixteenth century, however, continental printers began to distinguish between u and v, using the former as a vowel and the latter as a consonant. The distinction is found in Italian printing as early as 1524, but its general introduction dates from 1559–60, when it was employed in the Grammatica of Ramus; apparently the innovation was due to the printer rather than to the author. In English there were several attempts to introduce the distinction before 1600; after 1600 it rapidly became more common, and had come to be general by 1630. In capitals, however, V for some time continued to serve in the old double function, although u had been introduced in the work of Ramus. This was subsequently adopted and remained the usual form for the capital vowel until the close of the 17th century, after which it rapidly gave way to U, a form which is employed, though at first sparingly, from at least 1625. (In italic type the vowel was U, the consonant V.) From about 1700 the regular forms have been U u for the vowel, and V v for the consonant.
One result of the long-continued confusion of u and v was that in dictionaries, indexes, etc., words beginning with the vowel and with the consonant were combined in one list, va- being followed by vb- (i.e., ub-), ve- by vf-, etc. This practice was very commonly continued even after the two letters had been distinguished, and in English dictionaries remained as late as Todd’s edition of Johnson (1818), and Richardson’s dictionary (1837). When the two letters were separated, v- was sometimes placed before u-; a late example of this occurs in Jodrell’s dictionary (1820). The modern arrangement, by which u- precedes v-, is found from at least the early part of the 18th cent., and has been usual in English dictionaries from that of Webster (1828), onwards.
In OE. the vowel-sounds denoted by u were those of Latin u, short and long, in the former case corresponding to that of mod.E. pull, bush, in the latter to that of rude, brute. In ME. the short u in native words partly retained its own sound, and was partly altered by lengthening or other phonetic changes; in some words the sound remained while the spelling was altered, as in wolf (OE. wulf), woll (OE. wull). The long u also retained its sound (unless when shortened before certain consonants), but was denoted by the new symbol ou derived from French spelling. Short and long u also freely occurred in words of French and Latin origin, but differed in quality from those of the native words, having the value of ü, ǖ; in the case of ū the difference continued to be marked, and the resultant sounds are now quite distinct. Under the influence of these forms southern ME. scribes substituted u for OE. y, ý (which had expressed the sounds ü, ǖ), writing cun, cuðen, etc., for OE. cyn, cýðan, which in midland and northern dialects became kin, kithe.
In mod.E. the short u of OE. (apart from changes due to lengthening, etc.) has normally become v (written u or o), as dumb, sun, thus = OE. dumb, sunne, þus, or some, love = OE. sum, lufu. This change apparently had not proceeded far enough to be clearly noticeable until the middle of the 17th century, and was probably not generally completed until the beginning of the 18th. Over all the north of England, however, and a large part of the midlands, the original sound of u remains in words of this class, and even in standard English it is preserved in a few instances after labial consonants, as in bull, full, pull, bush, put. Short u also has this sound in some common words not of native origin (mostly with labial initials), as bushel, butcher, pudding, pulpit, push, sugar. The OE. ū (ME. ou) has normally become the diphthong, written ou or ow, as in thou, town = OE. þú, tún, but in a few instances has been shortened, as in plum, thumb. The ME. ū from French or Latin, on the other hand, has become the diphthong, written u, ue, or u-e, as in huge, mute, future, cure, with reduction to after s, j, and r, as in sure, jury, brute, rule, optionally after l, as in lute, lure, and more widely in American usage. This mode of spelling has also been extended to some native words which originally had a diphthong, and would normally be written with ew, as hue, rue, true, truth (compared with new, grew, strew). The same sounds are also represented by ui in a few words, as nuisance, bruise, fruit.
In combination with other vowels u is employed in the groups au, en, ou (with varying value, as in foul, soul, four, young, route), ue and ui (see above). It is silent after g in many words, as guard, guide, plague, and in final -que, as masque, grotesque. It has the value of w after q in other positions, and in various words after g and s, as queen, quick, inquest; guano, iguana, anguish; suave, persuade, etc.
The name of the letter down to the 16th century was u, pronounced like the long u of French or Latin origin, and consequently undergoing the same change to which took place in ordinary words. The completion of the change is indicated by the use of the letter (u or v) to represent the personal pronoun you in such passages as Shaks., L. L. L., V. i. 60, and Dekker and Webster, Westward Hoe, II. i. (Cf. I O U.) In Scotland the name (ū) was locally in use as late as the 19th century.
I. 1. Illustrations of the use of the letter or of its name.
α. c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., ii. (Z.), 6. h and k ʓeendiað on a æfter rihte, q ʓeeudað on u. Ibid., xxxi. (Z.), 197. Mortuus sum on twam uum, swaswa nan oðer.
1530. Palsgr., 7. U, in the frenche tong, where so ever he is a vowel by hymselfe, shall be sownded like as we sownde ew.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. i. 6. Peda. I will repeat them: a e i. Pag. The Sheepe, the other two concludes it o u.
1668. O. Price, Eng. Orthogr., 29. The u is two fold. 1. Short, as in but, must, burst. 2. Long, as in lute, muse, refuse, as if it were the compound of iw.
1727. Swift, Misc. in Verse, Wks. 1841, I. 783/1. And Q maintain’d ’twas but his due Still to keep company with U.
1768. Boswell, Corsica, Pref. p. xviii. Leaving out … u in the last syllable of words which used to end in our.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 484/1. U is at one extremity of the series of vowel sounds, lying next to the vowel o.
1867. A. J. Ellis, E. E. Pronunc., I. iii. 136. Many words now spelled with u were written with ew in the XVIth century.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., U is the nineteenth signature of the printer’s alphabet.
β. 1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 291. He reciteth an example of one Masseus a frere,… the whiche in suche ioye or iubile coude speke nothynge but .v. v. v.
c. 1532. Du Wes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 899. Ye shal pronounce … v after the Skottes, as in this worde gud.
1611. Cotgr., Brief Direct., 1. V, is sounded as if you would whistle it out, as in the word, a Lute.
1616. Bullokar, Orthographie, the art of writing words truely; as sonne of man, with an O: sunne that shineth, with the vowell v.
1710. Shaftesb., Charac., I. III. III. i. 288. The vowel O was form’d by an orbicular Disposition of the Mouth;… The Vowel V by a parallel Protrusion of the Lips.
b. = YOU pron. See I O U.
1840. Sir N. C. Tidal, in Manning and Granger, Reports, I. 48. There was no one but the plaintiff to whom the ‘U’ in the document [an I O U] could be applied.
c. attrib., as u-sound, -vowel.
1852. Proc. Philol. Soc., V. 198. The long vowel expressed by the diphthong ou is weakened, but not to the extinction of the u sound.
1886. Encycl. Brit., XXI. 272/1. Original root-syllables contained no simple i- and u-vowels, except as the second element of … diphthongs. Ibid. (1888), XXIII. 715/2. At the same time begins the corruption of u to the (so-called) ŭ sound in ‘but,’ shut,’ &c.; this is not a u sound at all.
2. Used with reference to the shape of the (capital) letter, esp. attrib. or Comb., as U-like, U-shaped adjs., U-shape.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), I. 493. A minute semilunar bone, which, from its resemblance to the Greek letter υ or u-psilon, is called the hyoid or u-like bone.
1842. Parnell, Chem. Anal. (1845), 457. The water in the bottle is withdrawn, air entering through the U-shaped tube at the same time.
1857. W. K. Loftus, Trav. of Res. Chaldæa & Susiana, xxi. 270. Three mud bricks were laid down in the form of the capital letter U.
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 234. Below, the spots fewer, brown, U-shaped.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’s Bot., 88. The mother-cells are so developed that from the young … epidermis-cell, a small piece is cut out on one side by a wall bent in a U-shape.
b. attrib., in the sense ‘shaped like the letter U,’ as U bolt, -magnet, piece, plate, -rail, -tube.
1797. J. Curr, Coal Viewer, 63. The strength of the U plates must be the same as the spear plates.
1850. Athenæum, 31 Aug., 922/2. By Arrangements of Coloured Liquids in a U Tube.
1868. Rep. to Govt. U.S. Munitions War, 273. Iron rolled in the fashion of the ordinary U-rail for railroads.
1878. Abney, Photogr., 289. A mirror … is suspended on two axes, x x, working a U-piece, s s.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 911/1. U bolt, a clevis for the attachment of axles, rods, etc., in machinery and vehicles.
1888. Scribner’s Mag., Aug., 177/2. Immediately below the bend of the U-magnet are the commutator segments.
c. Something shaped like the letter U.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 814. The apex of the V or the bend of the U may become adherent to the mesentery.
3. Used to denote serial order.
Also employed as a symbol for purposes of calculation in quaternions, hydrodynamics, the theory of heat, etc.
1900. Dundee Advertiser, 14 March, 5. U Battery, which occupied a position to the north of the Boer centre, shelled the ridge thoroughly.
II. 4. Abbreviations: U = Uranium; U. C. = upcast shaft; U. K. = United Kingdom: U. P. United Presbyterian; U.S., U.S.A. = United States (of America).
1844. Fownes, Man. Chem., 290. The equivalent of uranium is 60·. Its symbol is *U.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-M., 266. *U.C, upcast shaft.
1892. Daily News, 27 Oct., 7/4. The supplies at sea for *U.K. have decreased 32,000 quarters on the week…. Supplies at sea for U.K. have further slightly decreased.
1865. Slang Dict., 265. *U.P., United Presbyterian. Scotch clerical Slang.
1878. Chambers’s Encycl., IX. 647/1. Protracted negotiations for union between the U.P. and Free Churches have been without result.
1834. McCulloch, Dict. Commerce (ed. 2), 843. American Tonnage. Entered into the *U.S. … Departed from U.S.
1867. Chambers’s Encycl., IX. 649/2. The U.S. are rich in mineral productions.
1901. Daily Chron., 12 Aug., 5/2. On Saturday we asked what language is U.S., which is announced as ‘spoken’ in the window of a City office.
5. slang or colloq. U.P., the spelling pronunciation of UP adv., = over, finished, beyond remedy.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xxiv. It’s all U.P. there,…if she lasts a couple of hours, I shall be surprised.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., 370. ‘It’s all U.P. with him;’ i.e. all up either with his health, or circumstances.
1861. Whyte-Melville, Good for Nothing, xxvii. II. 18. It’s a long lane that has no turning, but I did think for five minutes afore I saw your fire that it was about U.P.
