Ur
/ʊr/noun
A combining form meaning original, primitive, or earliest.
Did you know?English adopted this meaning largely through German ur-, as in Ur-ancestor and Ur-text, while the related German word Urzeit means “primeval time.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ud-
“Upward or outward; away from the inside”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*uz-
“Out, forth, or away”
Old High German
OHG
ur-
“A prefix indicating origin, emergence, or an original state”
Modern German
German
Ur-
“Primeval, original, or ancestral”
19th Century
English
ur-
“A combining form meaning earliest, original, or primitive”
Modern English
English
ur
“Used in compounds such as Ur-text, Ur-ancestor, and ur-language”