A. S. 1 E.\KE.
UNDERGIRD. — See art. Ships and Boats,
p. 5Uli".
UNDERLING.— Sir 4" 'Make not thyself an underling to a foolish man ' (m^? vroaTpuia-o^ ataurbv ivdoibrv liupi, RV ' Lay not thyself down for a fool to tread upon ' : for inrouTpCivvviu used literally see Lk 19^ ' they spread their clothes in the way '). Underling is found in the Bisliops' Bible La 5» 'Wee are underlings without fathers'; and in Bunyan, Holy War, p. 15, ' Can you lie kept by any Prince in more slavery and in greater bondage
than you are under this day? You are mada underlings, and are wrapt up in inconveniences. ° J. Hastings.
UNDERSETTER (in? 'shoulder,' esp. as sup- port for burdens).— The Heb. word (in the plu.l IS translated ' undersetters ' only in 1 K ,*"*■•'*''". and the meaning there is pedestals for the bases ot the lavcrs in the temple. The Eng. word means props or supports, but that it is not altogether an inaiipropriate translation the foil, quotation shows : On 49"' Wyclif (1388), ' Isachar . . undir- settide his schuldre to bere.' Elyot (Govcrnour, i 28) says that ' a wyse and counnynge gardener, purposynge to have in his gardeine a fine and precious hcrbe,' will, ' as it spryngeth in stalke, under sette it with some thyng that it breake nat, and alway kepe it cleane from weedes. linda e uses the v-erb metaph., Expos, p. 208, ' If our souls be truly underset \\ ith sure hope and trust. Wvelif (1388) has the form ' undersettings in Ezlc 41=6 (same Heb.), the 13S2 ed. having 'shoulders. * J. HASTINGS.
UNDERTAKE. — Is 38" 'O Lord, I am op- pressed; undertake for me' (-31V. RV * be thou my surety' : in Job 17^ the very same form of the verb is rendered in AV ' put me in a surety, RV ' be surety for me '). The Eng. word has the usual sense of the intrans. verb, ' to assume re- sponsibility for,' 'become surety for. Cf. I'uller, Holy War, p. 137, ' The barren warres in Syna starved the undertakers.' J. HASTINGS.
UNDERWRITE.— 2 Mac 9" ' He wrote unto the
Jews the letter underwritten ' (rijv imayi^faiL^vrj, imaToX-h")- The word is used literally, as RV ' the letter written below,' the words of the letter being then quoted. Cf. Shaks. Macbeth, V. viu.
26—
' We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are. Painted upon a pole, and underwrit " Here may you see the tyrant." '
J. HASTINGS. UNEASY is now restless, but in its only occu- rence in AV it means literally ' not easy,' ' difli- cult' : 2 Mac 12-' ' The town was hard to oesie^, and uneasy to come unto' (SvairpbaiToi, RV 'diffi- cult of access '). So Shaks. Tempest, I. u. 451— * This swift business I must uneasy make, lest too light winninj Make the prize light.'
The modern sense is quite as old, thus // Henry
IV. III. i. 10—
• Why rather, sleep, llest thou in smoky cribs. Upon uneasy palleU stretching theeV '
J. Hastings. UNGRACIOUS.— This Eng. word occurs in 2 Mao 4" 'this ungracious Jason' ('liff<-ii> 6 fuapbi, RV 'vile') 8" 'that most ungracious Nicanor' (o Toi<raXi^p.os SiKavwp, RV ' thrice-accursed'), l.i' ' the most ungracious wretch ' (6 rpivaXiHipios, liV ' the thrice-accursed wretch '), always in tlie sense now conveyed by graceless. So Mt IS^^ in Cran- mer's Bible, ' O thou ungracious servaunt (Gr. AouXe xoi-npO. Cf. Erasmus, Crede 45, ' Rejoysynge in synne and ungratiousnes ' ; Hos 7' Cov. ' \\ hen 1 undertake to make Israel whole, then the un- I'raciousnesse of Ephraim and the wickednes ol Samaria commeth to light.' J. HASTINGS.
UNICORN (CN1 and ciT! rff^m, on rSm; cf. Assyr. rimu [see Schrader, ^"-4 r» 456]).-The vari- ous forms of the Heb. word refer to an anima , characterized by its great strength (Nu 23»^ 24 ). untameableness (Job 39«- '«), fleetness and activity (I's 29"), noted for its horn (Ps 92"), of which it had more than one (Dt 33" nx-i -Jip ' horns ofa rt'VVn,' not pi. as in AV ' unicorns ; cf Ps 2^ 01J-1 'r\S ' horns of rgms'), associated with buUockJ
UNKNOWN GOD
UE OF THE CHALDEES
835
»nd bulls (Is 34'). All of these references soem to jioint to a well-known animal, probably of llie ox tribe. Certairilj- they do not refer to tlie fabulous unicorn, a rendering which has been adopted from the LXX iJ.ovoKipu>%, which is the word in all the above passages except the last, where tlie rendering is dopoi = ' strong ones.' The Arab, rtm is undoubtedly a white antelope, probably the Uucoryx. Some of the above references would Buit this animal. liut most of them seem to imply a creature of the ox sort, and one of the strongest and fiercest of its group. RV tr. it ' wild ox,' m. 'ox-antelope.' Two specios of wild oxen once abounded in Palestine. One, Bo.iprimigeniiis, the Auerocks- of the Old Germans, is now quite extinct everywhere. The other. Bison bonasits or Bos urns, which the Germans erroneously call the Auerocks, still exists in the forests of Lithu- ania and in the Caucasus. The latter cannot be the rS(m, on account of the shortness of its horns. The former was noted for its size, and the prodigious length and strength of its horns. It existed in Ger- many down to tlie time of Cajsar (Bell. Gall. vi. 28), and is depicted on the monuments of Assyria as one of the animals bunted by the kings of that country. (See art. Assyria, vol. i. p. 182''). Relics of it are found in the bone brecchia oaves of Lebanon, and in the lake-dwellings of Switzer- land. It is probable that it was not extinct until the Middle Ages. It is every way likely that this is the animal intended by the ri'em. Cf. Tristram, It'at. Hist, of Bible, 146 S., and Driver, Deut. 407.