No 10 has done a 'U-turn' on school meals: where does the term come from?
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Nov 13 2020 at 7:00 AM GMT
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- The government's reversal of policy on free school meals is just the latest in its long line of U-turnsThe UK government made a "U-turn", it was reported, when it agreed after all to extend free school meals, adding another letter to the very bad Scrabble rack representing its policy history.
- But why a "U-turn?"The distinction between 'u' and 'v' as separate letters (they were the same in the Roman alphabet) dates only from the 16th century in Europe.
- In the early 19th century we hear of a lecture hall lit by gas from 'u tubes", which sounds rather modern.
- An 1825 medical text, meanwhile, refers to a 'u-like" bone in the neck, the hyoid (literally, shaped like the Greek letter upsilon).
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- Published Nov 13, 2020 7:00 AM GMT