UXBRIDGE, a market-town of the county of Middlesex, fifteen miles from London. It is a part of the parish of Hillingdon, in the hundred of Elthorne. It is tolerably built, well paved, and lighted. The river Colne here joins the Grand Junction Canal, and thus forms a water communication with the metropolis. There is an extensive corn market on Thursday, and many mills in the vicinity are employed in grinding it, and in preparing the flour for the supply of London. This place is remarkable as the scene of the treaty attempted between Charles I. and his parliament. The house then used has been preserved, but is now occupied as an inn. Near the town are the remains, on Heiling Down, of an ancient encampment, commonly supposed to have been the work of the Britons. This town gives the title of earl to the eldest son of the marquis of Anglesea. The population amounted in 1821 to 2750, and in 1831 to 3043.
UZ, or Urz, the country and place of residence of Job. In the genealogy of the patriarchs, there are three persons called Uz, any of whom might give this district its name. The first was the grandson of Shem, by his son Aram (Gen. xxii. 23), who, according to Josephus, occupied the Trachonitis and Damascus, to the north of Palestine; but Job was among the sons of the East. Another Uz was the son of Nahor, Abraham's brother (Gen. x. 21), who, after passing the Euphrates, appears to have removed from Haran of Mesopotamia to Arabia Deserta. The third Uz was a Horite, from Mount Seir (Gen. xxxvi. 28), and thus not of Eber's posterity. Now the question is, from which of these the country of Job took its name. Not from the first, as is already shown; nor from the second, because his country is always called Seir, or Edom, never Uz; and then called a south, not an east, country, in Scripture. It therefore remains that we look for the country and place of residence of Job in Arabia Deserta, for which there are very probable reasons. The plunderers of Job are called Chaldeans and Sabeans, next neighbours to him. These Sabeans came not from Arabia Felix, but from a nearer Saba in Arabia Deserta (Ptolemy); and his friends, except Eliphaz the Themanite, were of Arabia Deserta.
V or v is properly a consonant, and as such is placed before all the vowels; as in vacant, venal, vibrate, &c. Though the letters v and u always had two sounds, they had only the form v till the beginning of the fourth century, when the other form was introduced, the inconvenience of expressing two different sounds by the same letter having long before been observed. In numerals V stands for five; and with a dash added at top, thus , it signifies 5000.
In abbreviations, among the Romans, V. A. stood for veterani assignati; V. B. viro bono; V. B. A. viri boni arbitrati; V. B. F. vir bonæ fidei; V. C. vir consularis; V. C. C. F. vale, conjux charissime, feliciter; V. D. D. voto dedicatur; V. G. verbi gratia; Vir. Ve. virgo vestalis; VL. videlicet; V. N. quinto nonarum.