Chapter Usquebaugh to Uzziel of U by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Usquebaugh to Uzziel

Usquebaugh (3 syl.). Whisky (Irish, uisge-beatha, water of life). Similar to the Latin aqua vita, and the French cau de vie.

Ut Saxon out, as Utoxeter, in Staffordshire; Utrecht, in Holland; “outer camp town”; the “out passage,” so called by Clotaire because it was the grand passage over or out of the Rhine before that river changed its bed. Utmost is out or outer-most. (See Utgard .)

“Strain at [ut. “out”] a gnat, and swallow a camel.”- Matt. xxiii. 24.

Ut Queat Laxis etc. This hymn was composed in 770. Dr. Busby, in his Musical Dictionary, says it is ascribed to John the Baptist, but has omitted to inform us by whom. (See Do.)

U'ta Queen of Burgundy, mother of Kriemhild and Gunther. (The Nibelungen-Lied.)

U'ter Pendragon (chief) of the Britons; by an adulterous amour with Igerna (wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall) he became the father of Arthur, who succeeded him as king of the Silures.

U'terine (3 syl.). A uterine brother or sister. One born of the same mother but not of the same father. (Latin, uterus, the womb.)

Utgard (Old Norse, outer ward). The circle of rocks that hemmed in the ocean which was supposed to encompass the world. The giants dwelt among the rocks. (Scandinavian mythology.)

Utgard-Lok The demon of the infernal regions. (Scandinavian mythology.)

U'ti Possidetis (Latin, as you at present possess them). The belligerents are to retain possession of all the places taken by them before the treaty commenced.

U'ticensis Cato the Younger was so called from U'tica, the place of his death.

Utilitarians A word first used by John Stuart Mill; but Jeremy Bentham employed the word “Utility” to signify the doctrine which makes “the happiness of man” the one and only measure of right and wrong.

“Oh, happiness, our being's end and aim ...
For which we bear to live, or dare to die,”
Pope: Essay on Man, Epistle iv.

Utopia properly means nowhere (Greek, ou topos). It is the imaginary island of Sir Thomas More, where everything is perfectthe laws, the morals, the politics, etc. In this romance the evils of existing laws, etc., are shown by contrast. (1516.) (See Weissnichtwo .)
   Utopia, the kingdom of Grangousier. When Pantagruel' sailed thither from France and had got into the main ocean, he doubled the Cape of Good Hope and made for the shores of Melinda. “Parting from Medamoth, he sailed with a northerly wind, passed Medam, Gelasem, and the Fairy Isles; and keeping Uti to the left and Uden to the right, ran into the port of Utopia, distant about three and a half leagues from the city of the Amaurots.” (Medamoth, from no place; Medam, nowhere; Gelasem, hidden land; Uti, nothing at all; Uden, nothing; Utopia, no place, distant three and a half leagues from Amauros, the vanishing point- all Greek.) (See Queubus.)

Utopian An impracticable scheme for the improvement of society. Any scheme of profit or pleasure which is not practicable. (See Utopia .)

U'traquists [Both-kinders ]. The followers of Huss were so called, because they insisted that both the elements should be administered to all communicants in the Eucharist. (Latin, utraque specie, in both kinds.)

Utter and Inner Barristers An utter or outer barrister means (in some cases at least) a full-fledged barrister, one licensed to practise. An inner barrister means a student. (See Nineteenth Century, No. 1892, p. 775, note.)