When trying to decipher the etymology of a term, it helps
to know what language the roots come from.  (01)
PDM> Look up ur- at Dictionary.com
 > prefix meaning "original, earliest, primitive," from Ger.
 > "original, primitive;" at first only in words borrowed from
 > Ger. (cf. ursprache "hypothetical primitive language," attested
 > in Eng. from 1908), now a living prefix in Eng. Cf. also
 > Urschleim under protoplasm and Urquell under Pilsner.  (02) 
I was reading an article about "urbilateral" worms from about
600 million years ago. I wondered why they were called
"city-sided", obviously from Latin 'urbs' for 'city' and
'lateralis' for 'side'.  (03)
Fortunately, another article provided a clue: the author
hyphenated the word 'ur-bilateral' for the most primitive
worm with two-sided symmetry.  (04)
John Sowa  (05)
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