U

adj.
Chiefly British. Of or appropriate to the upper class, especially in language usage.

[U(PPER CLASS).]

U² (ū)
n.
Used as a courtesy title before the name of a man in a Burmese-speaking area.

[Burmese.]

U³

1. The symbol for the element uranium.
2. The symbol for internal energy.

from Burmese
This word originated in Myanmar

How are U? No, that's not what you'd say in Burmese, even though U is a polite word to say when you're addressing a man by name. You use it when addressing a social superior. Someone who is your equal would be Ko, and a subordinate would be Maung. For a woman, the idea of politeness is the same but the words are different. Daw is the polite prefix for the name of a woman who is your social superior, Ma for an equal or subordinate.

All well and good, but what does this have to do with English? Well, one of these honorifics was introduced to the whole world in 1961, when U Thant, an educator and head of the Burmese delegation to the United Nations, was appointed U.N. Secretary General after the death of Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden in an airplane crash. Thant went on to serve two full terms as Secretary General, retiring in 1971. His name was always given simply as "U Thant," and the world was given to understand that "U" meant something like "the honorable Mr."

In referring to Burmese gentlemen, U has been used in English since at least 1930. It is still used today, as in a 1998 news story referring to a member of the executive committee of the opposition National League for Democracy in Myanmar, U Hla Pe.

Burmese belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is the official language of Myanmar, the Burmese word for a country known until 1989 as Burma. About twenty-two million people speak the language. One other Burmese word in English is padauk (1839), the name for a tropical tree with reddish wood. There are also names for local animals like tsine (1880), a wild ox; thamin (1888), a deer; and tucktoo (1896), a lizard.

By the way, to ask "How are you?" in Burmese you say "Nay kong ye' lah?" And the reply is "Nay kong bar te'," "I am fine," or "Ma soe ba boo," "Not too bad."

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The symbol for the element uranium.

u s s	3032 U
U S Mint	300750 u