Can you think of an eight-letter word with three Us in it and no other vowel? It's not unusual, nor is it uncommon, although it is uncommon. [Punctuate to taste]

quote:

Originally posted by haberdasher:
Can you think of an eight-letter word with three Us in it and no other vowel? It's not unusual, nor is it uncommon, although it is uncommon. [Punctuate to taste]

Well, there's usufruct, from Roman law: the right to enjoy the use or advantage of another's property short of the waste or destruction of its substance (Oxford American Dictionary).

But I gotta confess: it's been months since I've used that word in casual conversation.

Ranito

There's also unctuous. I haven't used that one often, either.

Usufruct is what I had in mind. "Unctuous" is disqualified by its o.

Unless you're a lawyer, unctuous is probably more common, often invoked in conjunction with Uriah Heep. (Isn't there a site somewhere that lists English words in order of their frequency-of-use? Granted, ordered by someone's arbitrary-though-well-meaning algorithm...)