Words Beginning with U

I have decided to leap ahead to some "u's" that are in the Unabridged or various dictionaries of difficult words and that might have some use for us today, even though some are difficult to spell or are new words for us. Something about the "u's" attracts me; it may very well be my favorite letter of the alphabet. I think it is the prefix "ultra" that does it for me, because for so many years in my youth I was a "beyond"-type of person. I wanted to go beyond life, beyond physical pain, beyond spiritual awareness, beyond the world, etc. Then, when you actually begin to study the words beginning with "u," you have so many interesting sounds that you simply have to pause and appreciate. For example, you have ungulate and uncial and uliginous and ulotrichous and ultramontane and uitlander and uberous and ultracrepidarian and ultroneous and ughten and uhland, just to get you started. You have the four-letter words of upas and unco and umbo. Let's begin, however, with a few words that we wish we knew.

Ultroneus/Ultra/Ultor

The Latin root ultro, different from ultra, means "of one's own accord" or "voluntarily." Therefore an ultroneous act is one made spontaneously, voluntarily or of one's own accord. From 1657 we have: "A superior may do an ultroneous honor, if he will, to his inferior." The word also had a meaning in Scots Law, where an ultroneous witness is one who came forward without being cited or called. What is a sophisticated antonym of ultroneous? Well, let's try exigible. Something exigible is something demanded, required, exacted. "The exercise of the student in the University classes, should be partially exigible, partly ultroneous." I am sure if you started talking like this today you would be thrown out of any class, but it is great to know the word. We are living in a culture which increasingly appreciates and celebrates the spontaneous. What a great opportunity to bring ultroneous back into the mix. So the opposite of ultroneous in our day might be "scripted."

While on ultro, however, let's just retreat to ultra, the prefix meaning "beyond." You have to check your dictionary to see if they use a hyphen between the ultra and body of the word; most contemporary writing does not. We really have a relatively unlimited supply of words that could begin with "ultra"--such as ultrathin, ultrasuede, ultraviolet. A humorous word that grew out of the last is ultraviolation, which is (excessive?) irradiation with ultraviolet light. "After the ultraviolation, the leaves of the flower lay limp." My preferred word here is ultraism. Be sure to distinguish it from the utraquists, of whom more below. And, when I turned to "Ultraism" I learned another new word: tertulia. Well, ultraism has been around for a long time, and its root meaning is people who advocate extreme measures. The "Ultraist" movement in the 20th century was a literary movement in Spain just after WWI, which attempted to bring a more conservative flavor to Spanish literature and poetry. But anyone who advocates what would be considered a radical approach to politics or life could be called an ultraist. Oh, what was the new word I learned here? It is tertulia, the cafes of Madrid where the new movement was launched. The word is synonymous with "salon," and it never really made it into English (though salon did).

I said that this movement was to be distinguished from the Utraquists, which was a historical movement in medieval Bohemia which believed that the eucharist should be offered to communicants in both kinds (the bread was only offered traditionally). This movement derived its name from the Latin utraque, and the phrase "sub utraque specie," or "under each kind," was the watchword of the movement. These "proto-Protestants" were a sect of the Hussites. To increase your vocabulary, this group was also known as the "Calixtines," after the medieval Latin word calix or cup, and thus it designated the movement of people who believed that they should also receive the cup in communion. But there is nothing so confusing in the world as studying theology, for this new word, which I just taught you, has also another meaning. It can also be an adherent of the opinions of George Calixtus (1586-1656), a Lutheran theologian at the University of Helmstedt, whose moderate and conciliatory views earned him the scorn of almost everyone in that "kill 'em" age. As one of my friends says to me, usually with reference to problems in her life, "Bill, that is way more than you want to know..."

But before leaving all this "ultra" stuff, I want to pause for a moment on another Latin root that isn't very prevalent in English, ultor. The Latin verb ulcisci means to avenge, and one word, ultion, came into English and meas "vengeance, revenge." GB Shaw even used the word in 1901: "My mission here/ Is to wreak ultion for the broken law." Its theological use antedated this by a few centuries, however: From Thomas Browne:

"To forgive our enemies is a charming way of revenge...and to do good for evil a soft and melting ultion, a method taught from heaven..."

Even the word ultion sounds like "lotion," doesn't it? We can gently exact a sweet ultion. I think I like the sound.

A Few Other Short "U's"--Unco, Umbo, Upas

Let's begin with the easy one--umbo. The OED gives several definitions of the term, but the first, and most prominent, relates to the boss or knob usually at the center of an ancient shield. Yet, some online pictures, here for example, tell us that the umbo is the outside, rounded layer around the middle. Let's stay with the OED definition; the umbo is the omphalos, the center, the knobbed protuberance in the middle.

Unco is a shortening of uncouth, and it meant in Scotland and northern English dialects something that was strange, unknown, or unusual. Robert Burns used the phrase unco guid in a poem "Address to the Unco Guid. Or the Rigidly Righteous." I have always had trouble appreciating Burns, probably because he really was writing in a different language, and this poem is no exception.

Let's conclude with upas. The word appears in every dictionary and relates to a southeast Asian tree. At first, in the 18th century, it was alleged to have been a tree in Java with properties so poisonous as to destroy all animal and vegetable life to a distance of fifteen miles around it. Quickly the term took on a figurative meaning as something extremely "toxic" as we would say today. Byron could say: "This uneradicale tain of sin,/ This boundless upas, this all-blasting tree." Or, in the mid-19th century: "Thus did Spain..crush the upas of heresy in its germ..."

I think I will do one more "U" essay.

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