Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: U

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

U is for u ..... well it isn't for anything as there isn't a single homonym beginning with that letter. So let's have some fun with etymologies of words beginng with U and we will begin with....

Union is first seen in the 15th century, it comes from Old French union and Latin unionem both 'oneness' and also seen in the Latin unus 'one' or 'a single pearl, an onion'. All these can be traced to Proto-Indo-European oi-no 'one, unique'.

Urge has an intriguing history, and has changed its meaning almost at every turn. First seen around 1550, it came to English from Latin urgere 'to press hard', and can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European urgh 'to tie, bind'. What is fascinating is how this Proto-Indo-European root have given us Lithuanian vertzi 'to fasten, squeeze', vargas 'need, distress', and vergas 'slave'; Old Church Slavonic vragu 'enemy'; Gothic wrikan 'persecute'; and Old English wrecan 'drive, hunt'.

Uncle came from Old French onlce with the same meaning. The French got it from Latin avunculus 'mother's brother' (father's brother was patruus, literally 'little grandfather'). These can be traced to the Proto-Indo-European root awo meaning 'grandfather' or 'adult male relative other than the father'. Looking at other European languages derived from the same root, it seems nobody can agree on what an uncle is, for Hittite huhhas is 'grandfather'; as is Armenian hav; but Lithuanian avynas is 'maternal uncle'; Old Church Slavonic ujo is 'uncle'; and Welsh ewthyr means 'uncle'.