It's not every day you see a poodle in a padded pumpkin jacket, but in New York, with both Halloween and a presidential election looming, a dog dressed as a vegetable was nothing to blink at. Yes, I know, technically members of the squash family are considered fruit, but this is not the place for botanical arguments.There are many enchanting things about the city that never sleeps. During Halloween-meets-election season there are also some frightening sights. An orange orb borne along on four spindly canine legs was the least of these.story_article_left1On Madison Avenue a high-fashion store displayed its clothes on skeletons (no, they were not skinny models; they were skeletons). On Brooklyn Bridge an affectionate piece of graffiti shouted: "Your mom is a dirty pirate hooker."On the subway a teenager shopped for automatic weapons via his cellphone. On residential streets the porches were piled high with real pumpkins and the front doors draped in fake cobwebs. On front pages and television screens a man performed a startling impersonation of a carved-out gourd.Speaking of trump, it is one of the few words in the United States (apart from "united") that contains a U. Trump the man has Scottish and German ancestry. Trump the word comes from France. It evolved from the 14th-century Middle English trumpen, which came from the Old French tromper.In A Historical Grammar of the French Language, published in English translation in 1896, etymologist Auguste Brachet defined tromper as "properly to play the horn, alluding to quacks and mountebanks, who attracted the public by blowing a horn, and then cheated them into buying; thence to cheat". Only later did "trump" become associated with the winning of card games.From the verb "trump" came the noun "trumpery", which in the mid-15th century (thank you Online Etymology Dictionary) meant deceit or trickery, and in the 16th century took on a second meaning: "showy but worthless finery".Let us leave matters of French letters and return to U. Americans do not like it. They prefer labor, color, splendor and favor to remain U-less.No one can adeqately pinpoint exactly when this U-dropping began, but somewhere back in the mrky depths of history mst have been a person who wished there wold never be another U.story_article_right2In 1917, American artist James Montgomery Flagg designed a recruitment poster (based on the earlier British one of Lord Kitchener saying "Your country needs YOU") on which Uncle Sam (with Flagg's face) said: "I want YOU for US army."Clearly Flagg was not a U-hater, otherwise the poster would have read: "I want YO."Absrdity aside, I can't help wondering why Americans are so afraid of U. Something to do with U-boats? Or is all about the "me" generation?I also wonder why this neurosis has not been exploited for commercial gain by those who manufacture Halloween gewgawery. It is a puzzling omission. Americans did not invent Halloween, but they have turned it into a gleeful orgy of ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night. Shops and residents compete to see who can put up the most disturbing decorations and children outcreep each other in the mask stakes.If I were the sort of person who entered into the spectral spirit of such things, I would have gone to a Halloween parade wearing a U-mask, and a T-shirt that shouted "Your country needs U".E-mail your observations on words and language to Sue de Groot on degroots@sundaytimes.co.za or follow her on Twitter @deGrootS1..