Etymology/meaning/onomatopoeic aspects of the word "Urth"

Nigel Price · 28 Apr 2008, 15:12 · from 2008-April.txt.gz

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From: nigelaprice at talktalk.net (Nigel Price)
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:12:52 +0100
Subject: (urth) Etymology/meaning/onomatopoeic aspects of the word "Urth"
Message-ID: <AFEFKBJKJDDJOMBNACBNAEOCDJAA.nigelaprice at talktalk.net>

In addition to the other shades of meaning already mentioned, "Ur" carries
the sense of "source". Thus "Ur-Hamlet", for example, is a supposed lost
source play for Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Remember that although Urth itself in the time of Severian is a bit of a
galactic backwater, humanity had in previous ages gone out to the stars to
found and lose stellar empires. Humanity, in many forms, must be living or
have lived on many worlds by Severian's time, but Urth is still humanity's
home planet, the "source" of the race and its point of origin.

Perhaps, humanity will always refer to the soil it stands on as "earth", but
there remains only one Earth, and overtime this Earth has become thought of
as the "Ur-Earth", "Urth".

Or something like that...

Nigel

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