urtext

[ ur-tekst, oor- ]

noun

, (sometimes initial capital letter)

1. the original form of a text, especially of a musical composition.

Urtext

/ ˈuːrtɛkst /

noun

1. the earliest form of a text as established by linguistic scholars as a basis for variants in later texts still in existence
2. an edition of a musical score showing the composer's intentions without later editorial interpolation

Word History and Origins

Origin of urtext¹

First recorded in 1950–55; ur- ³ + text

Word History and Origins

Origin of urtext¹

from ur- original + text

Example Sentences

If 2022 had an urtext, though, it was “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which with 11 nominations and a clutch of influential guild awards is the presumed front-runner for best picture.

From Washington Post

“Bridget Jones’s Diary,” by Helen Fielding, about a contemporary London singleton looking for love, is the urtext here.

From Washington Post

He said, “We have an 18-volume set of the complete keyboard works in urtext editions; would you like one?”

From New York Times

In the history of underdog sports stories, I think I may have found the urtext: a dramatic true tale of unlikely triumph over adversity and the odds — by a team of plucky orphans no less — so primal and insistently button-pushing that it seems to have inspired all other similarly themed athletic fictions that came after it.

From Washington Post

Over the years, this article would become famous, and then infamous, as the urtext of a very influential theory of policing.

From Washington Post