UVULARIA, a genus of plants, order Liliacex. The mealy bellwort, U. per foliate, is a handsome, smooth plant, found in woods in the United States and Canada; stem 10-14 inches high, pass ing through the perfoliate leaves near their bases, and dividing into two branches at top; flowers pale-yellow.
V, v, the 22d letter, and the 17th consonant of the English alphabet. It represents a labial or labio-dental con sonant sound, and is produced by the junction of the lower lip and upper teeth, as in ov, eve, vain. The sound of v differs from that of f, which is pro duced in the same way, in being voiced, while that of f is breathed. Both v and f are also continuous consonants, and also belong to the class of the spirants.
V in Middle English is commonly written u in MSS., and conversely u sometimes appears as v, most frequently at the be ginning of words, and especially in the word vs, vse, vp, vnto, under, and vn-, used as a prefix. As noted under U, u and v were formerly the same letter, and in dictionaries and alphabetical lists words beginning with U and V were, up till a comparatively recent date, com bined. [U.] The Latin v, or rather con sonant u. was probably pronounced as w; as in vesper = wasp. A very large proportion of the words which begin with v are of French or Latin origin, only vane, vat, vinewed, and vixen being English. The letter v did not exist in Anglo-Saxon, its sound being represented by f, as in heofon=heaven, of=of (ov). [F.] By this may be explained the change of consonant in the plurals in such words as thief, plural thieves, wolf, plural, wolves, etc. V frequently re
places 1, as in vat = Middle English fat; vetches = Middle English fetches (at the present day so pronounced in the Midland counties), etc. In the dia lects of the S. of England v is still com monly used where other dialects have f : as vo =foe, winger = finger, etc. V in some Romance words represents ph, as vial = phial, Middle English visnomy physiognomy, etc. V has been changed to (1) w in periwinkle = French per vencke, Latin perivinca; (2) to in in malmsey=Middle English malvesie, Old French, malvoisie. In vulgar speech, es pecially of Londoners, v is sometimes used for w, and, conversely, w for v; as yell for well, very for very. V never ap pears as a final letter in English (though a final v sound often occurs), nor is it ever doubled.
V as a symbol is used: (1) As a nu meral: For 5, and with a dash over it for 5,000. (2) In chemistry: For the ele ment vanadium. (3) In heraldry: For vert, in the tricking of arms with a pen and ink. (4) In law: For versus (Latin) =against; as John Doe v. Richard Roe.
(5) In physics: For velocity or volume.
(6) In music: As an abbreviation of violino, violini, voce, volta, etc. (7) In finance: For $5; as I'll give a V for it (from the letter V on the bill). (8) In electrics: As a symbol for volt.