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Double-u

//ˈdʌb.(ə)l.juː// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The name of the Latin script letter W/w.
  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of double-u. alt-of
  3. 3
    the 23rd letter of the Roman alphabet wordnet
  4. 4
    Alternative name of the Latin-script digraph ⟨UU⟩. alt-of, alternative, name
  5. 5
    The WC; the toilet. euphemistic

    "She would try the front door, and try the back door, and look in the windows; and once she even looked in the double-u."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English doble W, in reference to the letter's origins as a ligature of two Us or Vs (V originally being a typographical variant of U). The failure of the sequence /bljuː/ to simplify in this word's bisyllabic pronunciation (as in blue) is doubtlessly due to the letter U's name. For colloquial pronunciations without /l/, compare Straya.

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