See also: Urtext, ur-text, and Ur-text

English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From ur- +‎ text.

Noun edit

urtext (plural urtexts)

  1. A primitive, seminal, or prototypical example of an artistic genre or the basis of an ideological movement.
    • 2015, Marc Mamigonian, “Academic Denial of the Armenian Genocide in American Scholarship: Denialism as Manufactured Controversy”, in Genocide Studies International, volume 9, number 1, →DOI, pages 61–82:
      Nearly coinciding with the publication of Thomas’s work was what, in many ways, stands as the ur-text of Turkish denialist “scholarship”: Esat Uras’s Tarihte Ermeniler ve Ermeni Meselesi. Uras, born Ahmed Essad, was an important figure in the CUP administration and was heavily involved in the planning and execution of the Armenian Genocide as a high official in the “directorate for public security.”
    • 2016 May 16, Johnathan Chait, “How Trump Has Revived the Republican Cult of Manliness”, in NYMag[1], archived from the original on 4 September 2017:
      The Weekly Standard ran an interminable series of essays lauding manliness and lamenting its demise at the hands of liberalism. Perhaps the Ur-text of this movement was a 2003 Jay Nordlinger op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.
    • 2019 October 15, Rebecca Alter, “Tell Us About It, Stud: HBO Max Orders Grease: Rydell High Musical Series”, in Vulture[2]:
      Paramount Television also produced the 2016 Vanessa Hudgens showcase Grease: Live for Fox, which had good ratings, was a critical success, and was the most exposure Jessie J had had in years. So it seems like this Ur-text of American horny teendom is in good hands.
  2. (music, linguistics, anthropology) The original version of a piece of music or text, as created by the composer or writer.

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