U, u November, the Alphabet Project

U, u: Like F, From the Semitic waw, “peg,” but with the bottom stem lopped off altogether. U is the immediate ancestor of letters V and W, which as late at the Seventeenth Century, were not represented by distinct letters, so the word value would have been ualue. Given that in the Middle Ages, J had not yet become a letter a either, juvenile would have been iuuenile.




Uranus: Roman sky god, husband of Gaiea, “earth,” from the Greek ouranos, “heaven,” possibly akin to the Hitite wara, “to burn,” therefore, “giver of light” (?)



Coming November 30th, Return of the Stoopid Contest