Word.ws English Dictionary

ur-

UK/ʊə/US/ʊɹ/

ur- prefix: forming words with the sense of “proto-, primitive, original”.

Prefix

ur-

  1. Forming words with the sense of “proto-, primitive, original”.
    • Some stories reach deeper, into the most primal and profound truths. They mirror, in new and original ways, the Ur-myth, the act of creation itself.2003, John Adcox, 'Can Fantasy be Myth? Mythopoeia and The Lord of the Rings', The Newsletter of the Mythic Imagination Institutehttp://www.mythicjourneys.org/passages/septoct2003/newsletterp8.html
    • Lebanon ultimately remains hostage to the regional ur-conflict over Palestine.2007, Max Rodenbeck, ‘Lebanon's Agony’, New York Review of Books, volume 54, number 11

Origin of ur-

Contrary to popular belief, not derived from the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur being one of the first cities. From German ur-, from Middle High German ur-, from Old High German ur- (“out; without”), from Proto-West Germanic *uʀ-, from Proto-Germanic *uz- (“out”), from Proto-Indo-European *uds- (“up, out”), from Proto-Indo-European *úd (“upwards, away, out, outwards”). Doublet of a- and or-, which is no longer productive (fossilized in e.g. ordeal). Cognate also with Dutch oer- and Dutch oor-.

Words formed from ur-

Questions about ur-

What does ur- mean?
Ur- means forming words with the sense of “proto-, primitive, original”.
What part of speech is ur-?
Ur- is a prefix.
How do you pronounce ur-?
Ur- is pronounced /ʊə/ (UK).

Words near ur- in the dictionary

  1. ur
  2. Ur continent
  3. Ur continents
  4. ur mom
  5. ur mum
  6. ur-
  7. ur-ancestor
  8. ur-ancestors
  9. ur-continent
  10. ur-continents
  11. ur-cool

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ur- (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “ur-.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ur-. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.