Uni- World English Historical Dictionary

Uni- World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1926, rev. 2022. Uni- repr. L. ūni- combining form of ūnus one, a single, forming the first element in a number of words with the sense ‘having, composed or consisting of, characterized by, etc., one (thing specified by the second element).’ The Latin prefix ūni- (before a vowel ūn-) was employed before or during the classical period in only a few terms, as ūnicolor, ūnigena, ūnimanus, ūniversus, ūnanimus, ūnoculus adjs.; ūniversitās, ūnanimitās sbs. In the post-classical and later language the prefix had a more extensive use, although the recorded instances are not very numerous; they are chiefly adjectival forms, as ūnicalamus, ūnicaulis, ūnicornis, ūniformis, ūnigenitus, ūnijugus, ūniversālis, ūnivocus, etc., ūnanimis. The earliest appearance of the element in English is naturally in words directly adopted from French or Latin, as UNANIMITY, UNICORN, UNIFORM a., UNISON, UNIVERSAL a., UNIVERSE, UNIVERSITY, etc. In more general use it first appears in words adapted from Latin compounds or modelled on these, as univocate (1432–50), univocal (1541), unigenit (a. 1568); but it was not until the 17th c. that the prefix obtained much currency, when in addition to normal combs. as unicolorate, unicornous, uniparous, unireme, univalve, etc., such occasional formations as unifoil, unifold, unipresence, unipresent were coined on analogy with other numerical prefixes. In the 18th c. a comparatively small number of new compounds were adapted or formed, as uniangulate, unicapsular, unigenous, unilocular, unisoil, etc. In the 19th c. the element came to be freely employed in the formation of scientific and technical terms, especially in Bot. and Zool., freq. after mod.L. formations as unicapsularis, -cellularis, -foliatus, -labiatus, -lobatus, -nervatus, -nervus, -ovulatus, -sexus, or adapted from F. terms as unicursal, -cuspidé, -lobé, -nerve. The second element in these compounds is thus naturally of Latin origin, but after the prefix had acquired a more extensive use it was not infrequently combined with English forms or words, and has been used occasionally in place of the Greek equivalent MONO-, (The use with English participial forms in -ed was not fully established until the 19th c.)

1   In scientific works the prefix is sometimes represented by the Arabic numeral, as 1-bracteate, etc.

2   The older and more important combinations will be found in this Dict. in their alphabetical place as main words.

3   1.  Forming adjectives with the general sense ‘having, provided with, composed or consisting of, or characterized by one (thing specified or connoted by the second element).’ Many of these compounds are self-explanatory or are sufficiently explained by the quots., and in such cases no definition is added. Uniangulate Bot. Uniareagerous [-GEROUS] Conch., having a single ‘area.’ Uniarticulate Ent. and Zool., having a single joint. Uniauriculate(d Zool., having a single auricle or auriculate process. Unibasal, Unibracteate, -bracteolate. Unicentral (see quots. and cf. monocentric MONO- 1). Uniclinal, = MONOCLINAL a. (1879 Oldham, Geological Gloss., 58). Unicorneal Zool., of an ocellus: having a single cornea. Unicostate Bot. and Zool., having one rib. Unicuirassed, = unipeltate. Unicuspidate, ending in one cusp or point. Unidentate(d Zool. and Bot., having a single tooth-like serration. Unidenticulate Zool. and Bot., having but one denticulation. Unidimensional, of one dimension. Unidirectional, having or moving in one direction. Uniequivalent, = UNIVALENT a. Unifaced, of a coin (see quot.). Unifacial Zool. Uniflagellate Zool., of an infusorian: having but one flagellum. Uniflorate, -flowered, = UNIFLOROUS a. Unifoliate, -foliolate, of leaves, etc.: consisting of one leaflet; of plants: characterized by or bearing leaves of this kind. Uniglobular, consisting of a single globular part; in quot. absol. Uniguttulate, marked with one drop-like spot. Unijugate Bot. Unilamellar, Unilaminar, having one lamella, lamina, or layer. Unilinear Math., affecting or involving but one line (see quot. 1851). Unilobar, -lobate, -lobed. Unilobular Path., of cirrhosis: characterized by hypertrophy of single lobules; hypertrophic. Unimacular, marked with a single spot. Unimedial, coming through a single medium. Unimodular Math. Unimultiplex. Unimuscular Zool. Uninervate, -nerved. Uniovular, -ovulate, containing one ovule. Unipeltate Zool. (see 2). Uniradiate(d. Uniramose, -ramous, having or consisting of a single ramus or branch. Uniseptate Bot. Unisexed, consisting of members of one sex. Unisocietary, consisting of or characterized by one society or social order. Unispiculate, having but one spicule. Unispinose, having or bearing one spine. Unisulcate, having one groove or furrow. Unitelegraphic, pertaining to a telegraph capable of being used by only one person at a time. Unitentacular. Uniternary Cryst. (see quot.). Unituberculate. Uniunguiculate, having one unguis or claw. Univocalized, converted into a single voiced sound.

4   Various terms having little or no real currency have appeared in Dicts., etc., as unicarinated, -lineated (1840), uniclinal (1879), unicarinate, -foliar (1888), uniforate, -foveate, -lamellate, -laminate, -loculate, -sepalous, -serrate, -serrulate, -spiral (1891); etc.

5 1777.  S. Robson, Brit. Flora, 4. *Uniangulate, having one angle, as in Stinking Sedge.

6 1850.  W. King, Permian Fossils, 142. Genus Ismenia. Diagnosis.—*Uni-areagerous…. Area, both halves oblique to the hinge-margin, and to each other.

7 1819.  Samouelle, Entomol. Compend., 99. Legs bifid, the last joint of the four anterior pairs … *uniarticulate.

8 1856.  W. Clark, Van der Hoeven’s Zool., I. 300. Tarsi uniarticulate, with single arcuate claw.

9 1835.  Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., II. xxii. 416. The Cæcilia, or blind serpent, too, is almost *uniauriculate.

10 1859.  Agassiz, Ess. Classification, 338. Gasteropoda (Uniauriculate animals). Membranous heart with one auricle.

11 1839.  Penny Cycl., XIV. 335/2. M. de Blainville divides the genus into three sections…; 2, consisting of *uniauriculated species (Malleus normalis).

12 1890.  Amer. Naturalist, May, 406. *Unibasal pectoral and ventral fins.

13 1870.  Hooker, Stud. Flora, 387. Bog Asphodel,… pedicel *1-bracteate. Ibid. Eriocauloneæ…. Flowers minute … in involucrate heads, *1-bracteolate.

14 1864.  Spencer, Biol., I. § 50. 137. Central development may be distinguished into *unicentral and multicentral, according as the product of the original germ develops symmetrically round one centre, or … in subordination to many centres.

15 1875.  Dowden, Shakespere, 61. Assured that the organism is living, he fearlessly lets it develope itself in its proper mode, unicentral (as Macbeth) or multicentral (as King Lear).

16 1902.  Brit. Med. Jrnl., No. 2154. 908. Cancers either started from one centre (unicentral or monocentral) or from many centres (multicentral or plurocentral).

17 1884.  Sedgwick & Heathcote, trans. Claus’ Zool., 538. The *unicorneal ocelli are principally present in larval life.

18 1849.  Balfour, Man. Bot., 72. Reticulated Venation. 1. *Unicostate…. A single rib or costa in the middle (midrib).

19 1852.  Dana, Crust., I. 335. Hand … faintly uni-costate towards lower part.

20 1842.  Penny Cycl., XXIII. 82/1. *Unicuirassed Stomapods.

21 1883.  Flower, in Encycl. Brit., XV. 403/2. The *unicuspidate upper and lower front incisors.

22 1819.  Samouelle, Entomol. Compend., 222. Antennæ with their internal base *unidentate.

23 1833.  Hooker, in Smith’s Eng. Flora, V. I. 124. The lower [lobes of the leaves] … frequently unidentate.

24 1856.  W. Clark, Van der Hoeven’s Zool., I. 357. Mandibles small, narrow, unidentate or edentulous.

25 1822.  J. Parkinson, Outl. Oryctol., 201. Ancilla olivula: *unidentated at the base.

26 1828.  Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 266. Mandibles small, depressed, pointed and entire, or unidentated in the internal side.

27 1887.  Trans. Royal Soc. Edin., XXXII. 637. Radula, two rows of teeth. 1 and 2, lateral teeth; 3, median tridenticulate; 5 and 4, central *unidenticulate.

28 1883.  C. S. Peirce’s Studies in Logic, 156. Analogous reasoning would obviously apply to any portion of an *unidimensional continuum.

29 1883.  Knowledge, 13 July, 25/2. Intermittent, *unidirectional currents in the brushes.

30 1894.  Athenæum, 9 June, 745/3. Note on the Possibility of obtaining a Unidirectional Current to Earth from the Mains of an Alternating Current System.

31 1867.  Chambers’ Encycl., IX. 537/1. Monad or *Uniequivalent Elements (or Monads), one atom of which in combination is equivalent to … one atom of hydrogen.

32 1877.  Jewitt, Half-hrs. among Eng. Antiq., 139. Many of the early coins are *unifaced, i.e. one side is plain, while the other bears the device.

33 1846.  Dana, Zooph., iv. (1848), 65. A species, which usually has polyps only on one surface,—*unifacial.

34 1881.  Carpenter, Microscope (ed. 6), xi. § 419. Their simple *uniflagellate Monad (Monas Dallingeri).

35 1860.  Mayne, Expos. Lex., 1310. Uniflorus, Bot., having or bearing one flower: *uniflorate.

36 1845–50.  Mrs. Lincoln, Lect. Bot., App. 27. Pl. VII. Scape naked, *uni-fowered. Flower drooping, spathaceous.

37 1849.  Craig, s.v., *Unifoliate.

38 1881.  Jrnl. Linn. Soc., XVIII. 291. These apparently unifoliate stems are long petioles.

39 1866.  Treas. Bot., 1191/2. Unifoliate, *Unifoliolate, when a compound leaf consists of one leaflet only; as in the orange-tree.

40 1872.  Oliver, Elem. Bot., II. 130. Common Barberry,… with fascicled unifoliolate leaves.

41 1875.  Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 823. As in Duchesne’s unifoliolate Strawberry.

42 1891.  Geol. Jrnl., XLVII. 6. The structure of the zoæcia and of the dorsal surface is the same as in those with shorter nodes, so that we seem to have a series from the *uniglobular.

43 1887.  W. Phillips, Brit. Discomycetes, 13. Sporidia elliptic, obtuse, *uniguttulate.

44 1849.  Balfour, Man. Bot., 79. When a pinnate leaf has one pair of leaflets, it is *unijugate.

45 1861.  Bentley, Man. Bot., 168. The leaflets … are arranged along the sides of the rachis or common petiole in pairs, and according to their number, the leaf is said to be unijugate or one-paired,… bijugate, etc.

46 1875.  Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 315. A vein … is formed from the base towards the apex, dividing the *unilamellar lamina into right and left halves.

47 1876.  Van Duyn, trans. Wagner’s Gen. Pathol., 466. In epithelial regeneration with *unilaminar epithelium.

48 1851.  Sylvester, in Lond., etc., Phil. Mag., Feb., 128. Accordingly this may be termed *unilinear-intersection contact, or more briefly, unilinear contact.

49 1870.  Rolleston, Anim. Life, 29. Both the liver and the pulmonary organs [of the common ringed snake] are *unilobar, the left lung being merely represented by a rudimentary structure.

50 1839–47.  Todd’s Cycl. Anat., III. 310/1. In the Potoroo the left lung is *unilobate.

51 1851.  G. F. Richardson, Geol., 286. In the strata anterior to the lias, almost all the fishes had heterocercal or *unilobed tails.

52 1897.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 170. In a less common variety [of cirrhosis of the liver] a finer network of new fibrous tissue tends to surround individual lobules (*unilobular).

53 1859.  Todd’s Cycl. Anat., V. (134)/1. The germinal vesicle is *unimacular in general in the small-yolked ova.

54 1802–12.  Bentham, Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827), III. 438. Constitutive of so many modifications or species of unoriginal evidence, we have *unimedial, bimedial, trimedial and so forth: in a word, multimedial evidence.

55 1866.  Brande & Cox, Dict. Sci., etc. II. 378/1. The determinant formed from the coefficients … is called the modulus of transformation, and when D is equal to unity the transformations are said to be *unimodular.

56 1816.  T. L. Peacock, Headlong Hall, ix. These thousand images, indeed, were but one; and yet the one was a thousand, a sort of *uni-multiplex phantasma.

57 1835.  Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., I. viii. 237. The second [order of molluscans] is *Unimuscular, having only one such [attaching] muscle with one impression.

58 1875.  Blake, Zool., 241. If there be but one muscular impression on a valve, then it belongs to monomyary or unimuscular bivalve.

59 1866.  Treas. Bot., 1191/2. *Uninervate,… one-ribbed.

60 1891.  Nature, XLIII. 454/1. The linear, *uninerved leaves characteristic of the genus Asterophyllites.

61 1904.  Brit. Med. Jrnl., 17 Dec., 1644. A chapter is devoted to this subject [i.e. polysomatous terata] under the subheadings of *uniovular twins.

62 1857.  A. Gray, First Less. Bot. (1866), 235. *Uniovulate, having only one ovule.

63 1845.  Encycl. Metrop., XXV. 2. This genus [Squilla] belongs to the *Unipeltate family of the Stomapodous order.

64 1887.  Sollas, in Encycl. Brit., XXII. 416/2. Monaxon *Uniradiate Type (stylus).—By the suppression of one of the rays of an oxea, an acuate spicule or stylus results.

65 1828–32.  Webster (citing Encyc.), *Uniradiated, having one ray.

66 1888.  Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 532. The first antenna is primitively *uniramose.

67 1890.  Microsc. Sci., XXX. 109. Six pairs of (thoracic) appendages…, of which the first are long, slender, and uniramnose.

68 1877.  Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., vi. 283. Entirely destitute of appendages, except a shorter anterior, *uniramous … pair of oar-like organs.

69 1866.  Treas. Bot., 1192/1. *Uniseptate, having but one septum or partition.

70 1875.  Cooke, Fungi, 40. In other … species they [i.e., spores] are uniseptate.

71 1856.  Putnam’s Mag., Oct., 390/2. Besides, in England a bar-maid was highly respectable. How precious must she be in this *uni-sexed fair! [= California].

72 1885.  L. Oliphant, Sympneumata, 286. The wise and sanguine … infer, both from the suffering and the capacities of present human nature, a future of new order in a *uni-societary world.

73 1900.  Proc. Zool. Soc., 20 Feb., 138. Skeleton forming a rather regular reticulum of *unispiculate fibres.

74 1828.  Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 168. The Shrimp. Thorax behind, and on each side of the rostrum *unispinose.

75 1852.  Dana, Crust., I. 414. Emargination uni-spinose.

76 1819.  Samouelle, Entomol. Compend., 181. Thorax with a gibbous protuberance, *unisulcate above.

77 1853.  Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 626. According to this improved plan of working, the wire of communication … may be considered as a public word road, or an omnitelegraphic way; whereas, in contradistinction, the conductor, as heretofore used, may be considered a private word road, or a *unitelegraphic way.

78 1889.  Amer. Nat., XXIII. 597. Microcampana is not the only *unitentacular Medusa found in the prolific waters of our Pacific coast.

79 1816.  R. Jameson, Char. Min. (ed. 2), 212. A crystal is named … *Uniterary, when there is one by one row, the other by three rows.

80 1852.  Dana, Crust., I. 122. Post-medial region with a small tubercle; intestinal *uni-tuberculate.

81 1856.  W. Clark, Van der Hoeven’s Zool., I. 303. Gyropus Nitzsch.—Tarsi *uniunguiculate.

82 1876.  Douse, Grimm’s Law, App. 206. Our own familiarity with *univocalized consonants.

83   b.  Prefixed to a sb. and forming a compound used attrib., as uni-direction, -face, -rhyme, -soil.

84 1778.  [W. H. Marshall], Minutes Agric., Digest, 18. A Unisoil Farm requires fewer Implements than a Polysoil Farm.

85 1859.  E. Williams, in Cambrian Jrnl., March 12. Four-lined unirhymne stanzas, of five or six syllables in a line.

86 1889.  Bottone, Electr. Instr. Making (ed. 2), 103. The uni-direction current machine.

87 1897.  W. C. Hazlitt, Suppl. Coinage Europ. Continent, 17. A silver uniface bracteate of Otho I.

88 1900.  Engineering Mag., XIX. 740. In some instances the engines are only uni-direction.

89   2.  Forming sbs., as Uniaxifer. Unicell Bot., a unicellular plant (Jackson, Gloss. Bot. Terms, 1900). Unipeltate (see quot.). Unistylist [L. stylus] (see quot.). † Unitrine [L. trīn-us], a unity in trinity. Obs. Unitrinity, unity in trinity. Unitrope (see quot.).

90 1869.  Student, II. 12. They [sc. polymerous leaves] will be *uniaxifers, biaxifers, etc.; multiaxifers, according as their meriphylls [= the space between two nodes of a leaf] are arranged along a single axis, or an axis ramified two, three, or more times.

91 1842.  Brande, Dict. Sci., etc. 1275. *Unipeltates, [Cuvier’s] Unipeltata, the name of a family of Stomapodous Crustaceans, comprehending those in which the carapace is composed of a single shield-like plate.

92 a. 1849.  Poe, Marginalia, cxlii. He is as thorough a *unistylist as Cardinal Chigi, who boasted that he wrote with the same pen for half a century.

93 1605.  Timme, Quersit., II. ii. 108. It hath pleased the omnipotent Creator to manifest & showe himselfe a *Unitrine or Triune.

94 1775.  Adair, Amer. Ind., 127. Her belief of the *uni-trinity, and tri-unity of the deity.

95 1910.  A. B. Basset, Treat. Geom. Surfaces, 25. The reciprocal polar of a unode is called a *unitrope.

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