U – Under the Weather, – Upper case / Lower case, – Umble pie…

Under the weather – yet another sailor’s term! You have to remember that in the days of wooden sailing ships, the crew were mostly barefoot (which is why the deck had to be sanded free of splinters every day) and except in voyages to regions of extreme cold, or during storms when they had some kind of waterproof outfit,  they were not very well dressed either. On the plus side, once they had left the land, they were free of infectious diseases like colds and flu – what they picked up whilst in port is another matter. However, sailors did get sick and they usually got sent to recuperate below deck – literally, under the weather…

Upper case / Lower case  – I began a career in graphics (among other things) at school where I joined the printing society – who printed the programmes for plays and concerts as well as posters using the large woodblock type that is now mostly seen in antique shops. It has been a strand in my career ever since and I have just made my first foray into AI – an evaluative exploration which I will be continuing once the madness of April A to Z is over. We printed with lead type which was kept in those compartmented drawers which are also beloved of antique shops and turned into glass-fronted showcases for knick-knacks. The capital letters were kept in one drawer marked Upper Case whilst the Lower Case letters were in the drawer beneath – simples!

Lest you think I have made a spelling mistake and missed off the “H” or am affecting a Cockney accent and dropping the “H”, Umble pie, is a pie made from Umbles which include very cheap cuts of meat and in particular – offal – heart, liver, kidneys, tripe, sweetmeats, lungs and thoroughly washed intestines. Such a pie is the food is, of course, the food of the poor who may well also be humble. The word humble comes from the Latin humilis meaning lowly, close to the earth. The two words – humble, and umble – are conflated in the expression “He was made to eat (h)umble pie.” He was humbled and forced to admit the error of his ways. I blame the confusion between humble and umble fairly and squarely on that obsequious creation of Charles Dickens in David Copperfield – “Uriah Heep” – an inveterate dropper of “h’s” whose catchphrase was “I’m ever so umble…”

Here is a recipe for Umble Pie…

There are no Cant languages beginning with U from the Wikipedia article today.