Word of the Day : November 6, 2018

umbrage \UM-brij\ noun

Definition

1 : a feeling of pique or resentment at some often fancied slight or insult

2 : shady branches : foliage

3 : shade, shadow

4 a : an indistinct indication : vague suggestion : hint

b : a reason for doubt : suspicion

Did You Know?

"Deare amber lockes gave umbrage to her face." This line from a poem by William Drummond, published in 1616, uses umbrage in its original sense of "shade or shadow," a meaning shared by its Latin source, umbra. (Umbella, the diminutive form of umbra, means "a sunshade or parasol" in Latin and is an ancestor of our word umbrella.) Beginning in the early 17th century, umbrage was also used to mean "a shadowy suggestion or semblance of something," as when William Shakespeare, in Hamlet, wrote, "His semblable is his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more." In the same century, umbrage took on the pejorative senses "a shadow of suspicion cast on someone" and "displeasure, offense"; the latter is commonly used today in the phrases "give umbrage" or "take umbrage."

Aired November 6, 2018

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