Alphabetical Entries: U

in 1988, Pam Postema became the first woman to umpire in professional baseball; in 2007, Ria Cortesio became the second. Umpires of both sexes work at other levels of baseball and in other sports.

from flabby usage as a pejorative (generally meaning "If I had you in a jar, I wouldn't give you air"), the literal meaning of "un-American" as being contrary to our founding principles has been lost. Use instead unconstitutional or illegal, if that's what you mean, or specify what you object to.

do not use these oxymorons. "The phrase 'unborn children' is a misuse of two words with clearly accepted meanings. Because of the meanings of the two constituent words, 'unborn children' is a logical impossibility, just like the phrase 'round squares.' 'Children' are young human beings from the ages of perhaps two to eighteen. A human fetus that has the potential to continue to develop to the point of birth and, subsequently, to the age at which we would use the word child (rather than newborn or baby or infant or toddler) is not a child. It cannot—logically cannot—be any kind of a child, including an unborn child" (Andrew S. Ryan, Jr., in Free Inquiry, June/July 2013).

see primitive.

while some countries are personified by men, others are personified by women (for example, France's Marianne and Great Britain's Britannia). If you need a sex-neutral replacement for Uncle Sam, use: the United States, the United States of America, the U.S., the U.S.A., the U.S. government; the armed forces, the military.

it's difficult to imagine being knowledgeable enough of another person's behavior and motives to use this term. As well as being sexist (there is no equivalent for a woman), it can be highly racist. Possible alternatives include: collaborator, traitor to one's race, toady, sycophant, stooge, backscratcher, bootlicker, puppet, rubber stamp, dupe, doormat, flunky, subservient/obsequious person. Today we might speak of someone who has been co-opted.

this term could be reduced to "Well, I'll be!" although anyone who wants to be a monkey's uncle is probably not a threat to the language. (Correspondent par excellence Bob Considine wrote of female war foreign correspondents: "In Korea, they landed with both feet, and if they aren't in war to stay, I'm a monkey's aunt.")

surrender, give up, throw in the towel/sponge, knuckle under, raise the white flag, call it quits, throw oneself at the mercy of, pack it in, throw up one's hands, capitulate, eat one's words.

to highlight social and linguistic inequities, certain words (for example, herstory, sheroe, thealogy, wimmin, womyn) are spelled unconventionally. None of these terms has replaced the standard term; their use is optional. In the case of wimmin and womyn, follow the alternate spelling for individuals and groups who use it. See also herstory.

this term is often used as code for African Americans living in poverty. "It suggests that they are a separate group from other poor people, a class by themselves which is 'below' the rest of us. It connotes hopelessness, desperation and violence, and implies that this group lives by values which are different from ours and is therefore immune to efforts to change their economic circumstances" (Paul Kivel, Uprooting Racism). He points out that African Americans have no monopoly on poverty; there are over twice as many poor whites as poor blacks in the U.S. "Nor is there a special 'culture of poverty' (another racially coded phrase). There are certainly negative effects of poverty, but well-paying jobs, access to decent housing and schooling would mitigate most of these." See also code words, culture of poverty, racism.

undergraduate. Or, be specific: first-year student, second-year student; class of 2025. See also freshman, upperclassman.

undercover agent/officer, private eye, eye, plainclothes detective, sleuthhound; sometimes, spy. See also plainclothesman.

see Third World.

understaffed.

as words go, this one is a corker. It seems to imply that the people so denoted are privileged—just not quite as privileged as other people. Instead of using this vague, five-syllable code word for poor, specify the conditions under which people live or the obstacles that prevent them from being more privileged. See also culturally deprived/disadvantaged.

inadequately exploited. Underutilized is most often seen when public resources aren't made available to profitmaking companies.

see illegals/illegal immigrants.

domesticity is a talent found in both women and men; either may also be undomestic. The term is vague; spell out what you mean.

sometimes what is meant is unprofitable.

compared to what? Some people who graduated from Yale still sound uneducated—and some individuals with a fourth-grade education can hold their own in a complex political discussion. Specify: self-educated, with a high school or GED degree, college educated. Or, describe the traits that you mean by uneducated.

this term covers people who are temporarily unemployed, on disability, formerly employed but recently "downsized," working part-time, or working in the home. Put "unemployed" in context for your audience. See also union man.

avoid this vague, self-contradictory cultural stereotype. A woman's clothes, behavior, words, feelings, and thoughts are, by definition, feminine because a woman is wearing them, saying them, feeling them. Words like womanly/unwomanly, manly/unmanly, feminine/unfeminine, masculine/unmasculine, ladylike/unladylike, and gentlemanly/ungentlemanly are based on cultural, not biological, expectations. Language should not underwrite this illogic. The only truly unfeminine things are those things biologically reserved to men. Replace the unhelpful and inexact word unfeminine with descriptive adjectives: cold, hard, selfish, abrupt, analytical, direct, competent, logical, etc. These adjectives can apply equally well to a man and are not synonyms for unfeminine but rather reflect the cultural spin on this word.

see unmasculine for an explanation of the subjective cultural meanings attached to this word. Define what you mean by ungentlemanly in precise terms: impolite, crude, rude, insensitive, thoughtless, discourteous, poorly behaved, ill-mannered, uncivil, disagreeable, inconsiderate. These adjectives (which can apply equally well to women) are not synonyms for ungentlemanly but rather reflect the way this word is most often used.

union member, labor/trade unionist, unionist, union backer, member of a union, organized worker.

the official title is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; it is commonly called Britain or Great Britain and it is abbreviated U.K. or UK; it includes England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. See also Great Britain, Irishman, Scotsman, Welshman.