Online Etymology Dictionary

usage (n.): c.1300, "established practice, custom," from Anglo-French and Old French usage "custom, habit, experience," from us, from Latin usus "use, custom" (see use (v.)).
usb: initialism for universal serial bus, by 1994.
use (v.): mid-13c., from Old French user "use, employ, practice," from Vulgar Latin *usare "use," frequentative form of past participle stem of Latin uti "to use," in Old Latin oeti "use, employ, exercise, perform," of unknown origin. Related: Used; using. Replaced Old English brucan (see brook (v.)).
use (n.): early 13c., from Old French us, from Latin usus "use, custom, skill, habit," from past participle stem of uti (see use (v.)).
used (adj.): "second-hand," 1590s, past participle adjective from use (v.). To be used to "accustomed, familiar" is recorded by 1520s. Verbal phrase used to "formerly did or was" (as in I used to love her) represents a construction attested from c.1300, and common from c.1400, but now surviving only in past tense form. The pronunciation is affected by the t- of to.
useful (adj.): 1590s, from use (n.) + -full. Related: Usefully; usefulness.
useless (adj.): 1590s, from use (n.) + -less. Related: Uselessly; uselessness.
user (n.): c.1400, agent noun from use (v.). Of narcotics, from 1935; of computers, from 1967. User-friendly (1977) is said in some sources to have been coined by software designer Harlan Crowder as early as 1972.
username (n.): by 1982, from user + name (n.).
usher (n.): late 14c., "servant who has charge of doors and admits people to a chamber, hall, etc.," from Anglo-French usser (12c.), from Old French ussier, from Vulgar Latin ustiarius "doorkeeper," from Latin ostiarius "door-keeper," from ostium "door, entrance," related to os "mouth." Fem. form usherette is attested from 1925.
usher (v.): "conduct, escort," 1590s, from usher (n.). Related: Ushered; ushering.
USSR: also U.S.S.R., initialism of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, by 1926.
ustashi: Croatian separatise movement, 1932, from Croatian Ustaše, plural of Ustaša "insurgent, rebel."
usual (adj.): late 14c., from Old French usuel (late 13c.), from Late Latin usualis "ordinary," from Latin usus "custom" (see use). The usual suspects is from a line delivered by Claude Rains (as a French police inspector) in "Casablanca" (1942).
usually (adv.): late 15c., from usual + -ly (2).
usufruct (n.): "right to the use and profits of the property of another without damaging it," 1610s (implied in usufructuary), from Late Latin usufructus, in full usus et fructus "use and enjoyment," from Latin usus "a use" (see use (n.)) + fructus "enjoyment," literally "fruit" (see fruit). Attested earlier in delatinized form usufruit (late 15c.).
usurer (n.): late 13c., from Old French usurier, from Medieval Latin usurarius "usurer," from Latin adj. usurarius "pertaining to interest," from usura (see usury).
usurious (adj.): c.1600, from usury + -ous. Related: Usuriously.
usurp (v.): early 14c., from Old French usurper, from Latin usurpare "make use of, seize for use," in Late Latin "to assume unlawfully," from usus "a use" (see use) + rapere "to seize" (see rapid). Related: Usurped; usurping.
usurpation (n.): late 14c., from Old French usurpacion, from Latin usurpationem (nominative usurpatio), noun of action from usurpare (see usurp).
usury (n.): c.1300, from Medieval Latin usuria, from Latin usura "usury, interest," from usus, from stem of uti (see use (v.)). Originally the practice of lending money at interest, later, at excessive rates of interest.
Utah: U.S. teritory organized 1850 (admitted as a state 1896), from Spanish yuta, name of the indigenous Uto-Aztecan people of the Great Basin (Modern English Ute), perhaps from Western Apache (Athabaskan) yudah "high" (in reference to living in the mountains).
Ute: 1846, shortened from Utah.
utensil (n.): late 14c., from Old French utensile "implement," from Latin utensilia "materials, things for use," noun use of neuter plural of utensilis "fit for use," from uti (see use).
uterine (adj.): "pertaining to the womb," early 15c., from Old French uterin, from Late Latin uterinus "pertaining to the womb," also "born of the same mother," from Latin uterus "womb" (see uterus).
utero-: word-forming element, from comb. form of Latin uterus (see uterus).
uterus (n.): 1610s, from Latin uterus "womb, belly" (plural uteri), from PIE root *udero- "abdomen, womb, stomach" (cf. Sanskrit udaram "belly," Greek hystera "womb," Lithuanian vederas "sausage, intestines, stomach, lower abdomen," Old Church Slavonic vedro "bucket, barrel," Russian vedro), perhaps originally in PIE "outer, sticking out," shifting to "belly" via "protruding."
utile: late 15c., from Old French utile (13c.), from Latin utilis, from uti (see use (v.)).
utilisation (n.): chiefly British English spelling of utilization (q.v.). For spelling, see -ize.
utilitarian: 1781, coined by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) from utility. One guided by the doctrine of the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
utilitarianism (n.): 1827, from utilitarian + -ism.
utility (n.): late 14c., "fact of being useful," from Old French utilite "usefulness" (late 13c.), earlier utilitet (12c.), from Latin utilitatem (nominative utilitas) "usefulness, serviceableness, profit," from utilis "usable," from uti (see use (v.)). As a shortened form of public utility it is recorded from 1930.
utilization (n.): 1847, noun of action from utilize.
utilize: 1807, from French utiliser, from Italian utilizzare, from utile "usable," from Latin utilis "usable," from uti (see use (v.)).
Utilize is fast antiquating improve, in the sense of 'turn to account.' [Fitzedward Hall, "Modern English," 1873]
utmost: Old English utmest (Anglian) "outermost," double superlative of ut "out" (see out) + -most.
utopia (n.): 1550s, from Modern Latin Utopia, literally "nowhere," coined by Thomas More (and used as title of his book, 1516, about an imaginary island enjoying perfect legal, social, and political systems), from Greek ou "not" + topos "place" (see topos). Extended to "any perfect place," 1610s.
utopian (adj.): 1550s, with reference to More's fictional country; 1610s as "extravagantly ideal, impossibly visionary," from utopia + -ian. As a noun meaning "visionary idealist" it is first recorded c.1873 (earlier in this sense was utopiast, 1854).
utopianism (n.): c.1810, from utopian + -ism.
utter (adj.): "complete, total," Old English utera, uterra, "outer," comparative adjective formed from ut (see out), from Proto-Germanic *utizon (cf. Old Norse utar, Old Frisian uttra, Middle Dutch utere, Dutch uiter-, Old High German uzar, German äußer "outer").
utter (v.): "speak, say," c.1400, in part from Middle Low German utern "to turn out, show, speak," from uter "outer," comparative adj. formed from ut "out;" in part from Middle English verb outen "to disclose," from Old English utan "to put out," from ut (see out). Cf. German äussern "to utter, express," from aus "out;" and colloquial phrase out with it "speak up!" Formerly also used as a commercial verb (as release is now). Related: Uttered; uttering.
utterance (n.): "that which is uttered," mid-15c., from utter (v.) + -ance.
utterly (adv.): early 13c., "truly, plainly, outspokenly," from utter (v.) + -ly (1); meaning "to an absolute degree" is late 14c., from utter (adj.)).
uttermost: c.1300, from utter + -most. More recent than utmost. Middle English also had uttermore (late 14c.), now, alas, no longer with us.
UV: abbreviation of ultraviolet, by 1928.
uvea (n.): 1520s, from medical Latin uvea, from Latin uva "grape; uvula" (see uvula).
uvula (n.): late 14c., from Late Latin uvula, from Latin uvola "small bunch of grapes," diminutive of uva "grape," which is of unknown origin. So called from fancied resemblance of the organ to small grapes.
uxoricide (n.): 1854, "the murder of one's wife;" 1860, "one who kills his wife," from Latin uxor "wife" (see uxorious) + -cide. Related: Uxoricidal.
uxorious (adj.): "excessively fond of or submissive to one's wife," 1590s, from Latin uxorius "of or pertaining to a wife," from uxor (genitive uxoris) "wife," of unknown origin. Uxorial, "relating to a wife or wives," is recorded from 1800 and sometimes is used in the sense of uxorius.
Uzi: 1959, trademark name for Israeli-made submachine gun, developed by Usiel Gal (1923–2002), and manufactured by IMI.