We have recently arrived back in Canada from our trip to Japan. Purchases we made on previous trips to Japan, that we packed to take with us, were umbrellas. Even though we arrived in Japan after the rainy season, we still needed to have umbrellas handy.
The English word umbrella was borrowed from the Italian word ombrella, which came from the Latin umbella meaning a small shade or shadow. The root word in Latin is umbra, shade or shadow. During a solar eclipse the umbra is the darkened shadow that moves over the earth when the moon completely covers the sun.
In 17th century English people started carrying a collapsible shade for protection against weather consisting of fabric stretched over hinged ribs radiating from a central pole. They named it an umbrella in 1611.
Umbrellas were used in many ancient societies around the world, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Chinese, and Indian. They served to protect important people from the sun. Umbrellas were a sign of importance and power.
The ancient Greeks used umbrellas for shade from the sun and the Romans realized they were also good for protecting one from the rain. In Europe during the Dark Age, it seems that the use of umbrellas waned. What did people do during a rainstorm? No one knows. Umbrellas reemerged in Italy in the 1500s but only for popes and clergy.
However, by the 1600s, umbrella use spread to France and England. And by the 1700s were common throughout Europe. The parasol, a lightweight umbrella, became a fashionable accessory for many women. Men started carrying personal umbrellas in the mid-19th century.
The meaning for umbrella expanded to include something which covers or embraces a broad range of elements or factors. Most of the provinces have signed on to Daycare policies under the federal umbrella. Grocery stores might sell Indian, Asian, and Middle Eastern foods under the umbrella of international cuisine. The insurance industry used the word to indicate a supplemental policy that extends the coverage of an underlying policy on the same risk.
Umbrella can also be defined as something which provides military protection, such as defensive air cover, as over a battlefield, and as a heavy barrage of artillery.
The bell-shaped or saucer-shaped gelatinous structure that forms the chief part of the body of most jellyfishes is called the umbrella.
There are umbrella trees or shrubs found in Australia and New Guinea. They resemble an umbrella in the arrangement of leaves or the shape of the crown, especially the schefflera, which have leaflets radiating from an elongated petiole.
Leaf-cutting ants have been referred to as umbrella ants because they carry bits of leaves on their backs for transportation.
Japan has a unique umbrella culture that has been developing for over a millennium. You’ve likely seen classic 18th-century woodblock prints of elegant geisha posing with one. Today it is not unusual to see a bride being escorted with a traditional bamboo and paper variety, which is a common accessory to the classic Japanese wedding photo.
In Japan cheap clear plastic umbrellas retail at just 300-500 yen ($3-$5 CDN) and can be great for negotiating your way through the crowded streets of Osaka, with basically full visibility. You could discover lots of umbrellas hanging on fences throughout the city that can be used if you forgot to carry one with you when a sudden rain shower appears. But I would recommend, “Don’t go to Japan without one.”
John would like to know if anyone has a sincere interest in a relevant word that he could possibly research for an upcoming column. If so, please send your requests to wordwisdom2021@gmail.com. Words will be selected according to relevance and research criteria. We cannot confirm that all words will be used.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
