A Dictionary of Cont..

ultimately 526
The story, by the way, owes a great deal of its
popularity in the nursery, as does Cinderella, to
the unconscious appeal it makes to children’s
egotism and self-pity.
ultimately. See finally.
ultimatum. There is no question but that ultimatum
means the final terms of one of the parties
in a diplomatic relationship, the rejection of
which by the other party may involve a rupture
of relations or lead to a declaration of war. More
loosely, it is used to mean any final proposal or
statement of conditions (Her ultimatum was that
he must get rid of the Great Dane or she would
leave their trailer home).
The question is over the form of the plural.
The conservative Oxford English Dictionary
holds that ultimata is the plural, but more progressive
English and American grammarians
agree in preferring ultimatums.
titimo; ult. See instant.
oh-a, used as an adjective meaning going beyond
what is usual or ordinary, excessive, extreme, is
obsolescent in England but remains in standard
use in America (He was an ultra sophisticate.
The ultra conservative viewpoint has few rational
adherents. . . ). It is not as much used in the
United States now as it was in the 1920’s when
the excessive was in vogue.
umbrage. As a term for being offended, take
umbrage is a literary term and would seem a
little strange or affected in ordinary speech. Yet
it is a fine phrase, suggesting one shadowed in
offended pride, retreating into the darkness of
proud indignation, withdrawing into dark clouds
of wrath whence will come the lightning of rebuke
and retribution and a thunderclap of scorn.
umbrella. See parasol.
umlaut is a German word accepted in linguistics
as the term to indicate an internal vowel change,
usually caused by a following vowel or a semivowel.
The term is also used to designate the
diacritical mark ( * ’ ) placed over a vowel in
German to indicate such a change, to show that
the letter is to be pronounced with a different
vowel than it would be pronounced with were
the umlaut sign not there.
The principle of the umlaut survives in English
in a number of what are now considered
irregular plurals. As the Germans say mann for
the singular and mh’nner (rhyming with English
tenor) for the plural of mann, so we have a
normal umlaut in goose, geese and tooth, teeth
and a development of what was a normal umlaut
in mouse, mice and cow, kine, and so on. Umlaut
also survives in some irregular verb forms: a
tree falls, but it is felled, and so on.
unable. See incapable.
unalloyed pleasure, with its suggestion of “pure
delight” or “golden hours,” is a cliche.
unambiguous means not open to various interpretations,
not having a double meaning, not
equivocal. Yet even if there is only one meaning,
one is not justified in equating unambiguous
with clear or perfectly clear; for even a word or
statement which has only a single meaning may
be hard to comprehend.
unapt. See inapt.
unaware; unawares. At one time these words
were used interchangeably. Today, unaware is
the only form that can be used to qualify a noun
or pronoun, as in he was unawure of his danger.
Either form may be used to qualify any other
part of speech, as in I blessed them unaware and
he came upon it unawares. The form with s is
generally preferred.
unbeknown; unbeknownst. Neither of these words
occurs in natural speech today, and one is as
good as the other if the purpose is to be quaint.
But a hundred years ago, when the words were
used to mean “unknown,” the form unbeknown
was standard English, and unbeknownst was
condemned.
unbelievable. See incredible.
unbend as a transitive verb means to release from
the strain of effort or close application or to relax
by laying aside formality. In mechanical things
it means to release from tension, as a bow in
archery. It can also mean to straighten from a
bent position (He unbent the paper clip and used
it to clenn the stem of his pipe). In nautical
terminology, to unbend is to loose or untie, as
a sail or a rope, or to unfasten from spars or
stays, as sails (As some grave Tyrian trader. . ./
. . . held on indignantly/ . . . To where the Atlantic
raves/ Outside the Western Straits, and
unbent sails/ There . . .“). The intransitive form
is more often used, and misused, of persons. It
means to relax the strictness of formality or ceremony,
to act in an easy, genial manner (Doesn’t
he ever unbend? Is he always this stiff and
formal? Sometimes he would unbend and spend
a social evening with a few select friends).
In using the ideas of bending and unbending
in figures of speech, there is a danger that has to
be watched for. As applied to physical objects,
such as bows, bending involves increase in tension
and unbending relaxation of tension. In
regard to human beings, however, the situation is
ambiguous. A state of tension may be conveyed
by straightness, erectness, stiffness, which is relaxed
by bending. Yet one may also be under
tension when bending and relax by straightening
up-as anyone knows who has ever picked berries
or worked with a hoe. One has to be certain,
therefore, when using bending and unbending in
reference to human beings, especially in figurative
uses, that one’s meaning is clear.
uncomparable; incomparable. Uncomparable is
more limited in meaning than incomparable. It
means that cannot be compared (Apples and
automobiles are uncomparable). Incomparable
means matchless or unequaled, beyond comparison
by reason of excellence rather than by reason
of dissimilarity (Venezia’s beauty was incomparable).
Incomparable is also used to convey the
sense of uncomparable, far more often indeed, in
contemporary usage, than uncomparable itself.
unconscious; subconscious. In popular usage subconscious
means imperfectly or not wholly conscious
(Some subconscious thozcght told me not
to sell, attractive as the offer then seemed). In
psychological terminology, the subconscious