Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An equivalent, compensation, or satisfaction for injuries received; the payment or return which every Maori expected and demanded for any injury or injustice.
  • noun Any compensation for services; wages.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun New Zealand Recompense, payback; revenge.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun sun god; counterpart of Akkadian Shamash

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Maori utu.

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Examples

  • In the Etruscan form, I can't help but be idly amused by Uθ- at the beginning which strongly reminds me of Sumerian utu 'sun'.

    Archive 2009-11-01 2009

  • That is to say, Sumerian Utu-zi 'Life-breath of the sun' would have become a partial calque Ut(a)-napishtim which would be reinterpreted by scribes and priests to mean 'he found (uta-) life-breath (napishtim)' (nb. the replacement of Sum. utu 'sun' with Bab. ūta 'found') and thus back into Sumerian with the reformulated Zi-ud-sura 'Life of long days', now implying a character who has found immortality.

    Odysseus, Uthuze and Utnapishtim 2009

  • That is to say, Sumerian Utu-zi 'Life-breath of the sun' would have become a partial calque Ut(a)-napishtim which would be reinterpreted by scribes and priests to mean 'he found (uta-) life-breath (napishtim)' (nb. the replacement of Sum. utu 'sun' with Bab. ūta 'found') and thus back into Sumerian with the reformulated Zi-ud-sura 'Life of long days', now implying a character who has found immortality.

    Archive 2009-11-01 2009

  • In the Etruscan form, I can't help but be idly amused by Uθ- at the beginning which strongly reminds me of Sumerian utu 'sun'.

    Odysseus, Uthuze and Utnapishtim 2009

  • Will we see Raumbo in a t utu? by Margaret Bassett on Sunday, Nov 9, 2008 at 1: 24: 33 PM

    Conned Again 2008

  • I duz a happpee danz fur utu seeing wen u kumz bak.

    ART - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

  • Paleontologists nahatulan Dyurasiko Park upang tumingin napetsahan at utu-uto sa pagkatuklas na Velociraptors ay Feathers .

    ideonexus.com »2007» Disyembre 2007

  • But in the sitting room, he could wxinno utu/u witness 5 already see four prizes glittering on top of a piano.

    With No One as Witness George, Elizabeth 2005

  • Justin sucked in a breath, half expecting the beach to erupt in a welter of Maori natives, their tattooed faces twisted in frenzied cries for utu, their sun-browned hands twined around the deadly hilts of their taiahas.

    Once An Angel Medeiros, Teresa, 1962- 1993

  • The cause of the quarrel was this: Tiki had had some of his pigs stolen by the natives of Waima, and he was seeking utu by robbing their sweet potato plantations, for which he was shot.

    A Narrative of a Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand in 1827 Augustus Earle

Comments

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  • According to Chris Cole in Wordplay, the shortest (with two others, uku & ulu) "uncommon word" beginning and ending with letter 'u'.

    June 2, 2008