type of cavalryman, 1753, from German Uhlan, from Polish ułan "a lancer," from Turkish oghlan "a youth." For sense evolution, compare infantry.

in uilleann pipe, from Irish uilleann "elbow," from Old Irish uilenn, from PIE *ol-ena-, from root *el- "elbow, forearm."

short for ukulele, by 1915.

abbreviation of United Kingdom, attested from 1883.

"decree issued by a Russian emperor," 1729, from Russian ukaz "edict," back-formation from ukazat' "to show, decree, to order," from Old Church Slavonic ukazati, from u- "away," perhaps here an intensive prefix, from PIE *au- (2) "off, away" + kazati "to show, order," from Slavic *kaz- (related to the first element of Casimir), from PIE root *kwek- "to appear, show."

by 1670s, from Russian or Polish Ukraina, a specific use of ukraina "border, frontier," according to Room, from Old Russian oukraina, from ou "by, at" + kraj region. He also notes that "The territory was so called because it was the borderland or 'frontier zone' of medieval Russia at the time of the Tatar invasion in the 13th century."

Ukraine was formerly also known as Little Russia, so called by contrast with Great Russia, when the medieval principality here became separated from 'mainstream' czarist Russia as a result of the Mongol invasion. [Room, 2006]

Related: Ukrainian.

1896, from Hawaiian 'ukulele, literally "leaping flea," from 'uku "louse, flea" + lele "to fly, jump, leap." Noted earlier in English as the Hawaiian word for "flea." The instrument so called from the rapid motion of the fingers in playing it. It developed from a Portuguese instrument introduced to the islands c. 1879.

word-forming element meaning "small, little" (in capsule, module, etc.), from French -ule, from Latin diminutive suffix -ulus (fem. -ula, neuter -ulum), from PIE *-(o)lo-, from *-lo-, secondary suffix forming diminutives, which also is the source of the first element in native diminutive suffix -ling.

word-forming element, see -ule + -ar.

c. 1400, from Old French ulcere, from Vulgar Latin *ulcerem, from Latin ulcus (genitive ulceris) "ulcer, a sore," figuratively "painful subject," from PIE *elk-es- "wound" (source also of Greek elkos "a wound, sore, ulcer," Sanskrit Related: arsah "hemorrhoids").