Parasols Redux

[steepholm]

By coincidence - or perhaps because writing yesterday's post sensitised me to the possibility? - as I was walking home along the Gloucester Rd this morning I met another white woman carrying a parasol. Or possibly a light-coloured umbrella. At twenty yards' distance our eyes locked in mutual affirmation, and we stopped to congratulate each other (and, by extension, ourselves) on our sagacity. I suppose this is how Morris Minor drivers feel when they flash each other on the road.

It occurs to me that umbrellas must have been used to keep the sun off before anyone thought of using them against the rain, given the etymology of their name. When did that extension of their use occur, I wonder?

Comments

[cmcmck]

Ask Jonas Hanway............. :o)

[slemslempike]

I love the idea of parasols being a mode of connection. If I find myself feeling lonely in a British heat I shall grab one and go a walking.

[steepholm]

Let’s make it a mass movement! (WIthout at all losing our sense of select specialness.)

[tree_and_leaf]

I was at an outdoor wedding yesterday on Hampstead Heath. Guests were issued with parasols.

[steepholm]

A very pleasing notion!

[thistleingrey]

ah, interesting! I wish I still had OED access.

Donne, here, but in German it's been a Regenschirm at least since C19 (I can't dig farther for that without better tools, either). I wonder.

[steepholm]

Well, you've shamed me into looking it up in the OED. They don't actually have the reference from Donne's letters, although you'll see he crops up further down the list of quotations. Forgive the lack of formatting, but here's the relevant part:

umbrella, n.
View as: Outline |Full entryKeywords: On |OffQuotations: Show all |Hide all
Pronunciation: Brit. /ʌmˈbrɛlə/, U.S. /ˌəmˈbrɛlə/
Forms: Also 16 umbrellia, umbrilla. β. 16–18 umbrello (16 vn-), 16 vmbrillo, 17 umbrellow... (Show More)
Frequency (in current use):
Etymology: < Italian ombrella and ombrello, < ombra < Latin umbra shade, umbra n.1 Compare French ombrelle, Spanish umbrela (zool.).(Show Less)
1.
Thesaurus »
Categories »

a. A light portable screen or shade, usually circular in form and supported on a central stick or staff, used in hot countries as a protection for the head or person against the sun.
α.
1611 T. Coryate Crudities sig. Lv Many of them doe carry other fine things.., which they commonly call in the Italian tongue vmbrellaes... These are made of leather something answerable to the forme of a little cannopy & hooped in the inside with diuers little wooden hoopes that extend the vmbrella in a prety large compasse.
1668 W. Davenant Man's the Master ii. i A very desperate man..coming near so bright a Sun as you are without a Parasol, Umbrellia, or a Bondgrace.
1695 P. Motteux tr. F. Pidou de St. Olon Present State Morocco 148 An Umbrella was carry'd over me, which in some manner defended me from the Heat of the Sun's Rays.
1716 J. Gay Trivia i. 14 Let Persian Dames th'Umbrella's Ribs display, To guard their Beauties from the sunny Ray.
a1739 C. Jarvis tr. Cervantes Don Quixote (1742) I. i. iv. 18 They came with their umbrellas, and four servants on horse-back.
1797 T. Holcroft tr. F. L. Stolberg Trav. (ed. 2) III. lxxxix. 479 The heat began so early in the day that, at six o'clock, we were obliged to use our umbrellas.
1832 G. Downes Lett. from Continental Countries I. 341 The costume is very picturesque in this part of Tuscany, always excepting the monstrous yellow umbrella, which is part and parcel of it.
1860 R. W. Emerson Culture in Conduct of Life (London ed.) 133 In the city of Palermo, the street was in a blaze with scarlet umbrellas.
1871 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues II. 93 He sees the rich man under an umbrella puffing and panting.
β.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Ombrelle, an Vmbrello; a (fashion of) round and broad fanne, wherwith the Indians (and from them our great ones) preserue themselues from the heat of a scorching Sunne.
a1621 W. Strachey True Reportory Wracke Sir T. Gates in S. Purchas Pilgrimes (1625) IV. ix. vi. 1739 So broad are the leaves [of palms] as an Italian Vmbrello.
1662 J. Davies tr. A. Olearius Voy. & Trav. J. Albert de Mandelslo ii. 138 in Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors Of the leaves they make sayles;..they make of them likewise Umbrelloes, Fans, Tents, Mats and Hats.
1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World xv. 407 The Chinese..when they walk abroad..carry a small Umbrello in their hands, wherewith they fence their heads from the Sun or the Rain.
1697 Lady's Trav. Spain (1706) 249 He commanded them to bring Umbrellos to defend us from the Sun.
1753 J. Hanway Hist. Acct. Brit. Trade Caspian Sea I. ii. xlii. 286 I observed that the Persians are not cautious..of the sun in any degree equal to the Portugueze; for the last seldom travel without a cloak and umbrello.
1755 T. Smollett tr. Cervantes Don Quixote I. i. iv. 21 Six merchants of Toledo..who travelled with umbrelloes.
γ.
a1630 F. Moryson in Shakespeare's Europe (1903) v. i. 442 Then followes the Duke in his Robes,..a Scudiero carying his ombrella betweene him and the sunne.
1710 C. Shadwell Fair Quaker of Deal iv. 40 Your Baubles of China, your Indian Ombrella, your Hair-Ring, and your own Picture.
(Hide quotations)


Thesaurus »

b. In some Oriental and African countries used as a symbol of rank or state.
α.
1682 London Gaz. No. 1721/4 In the Evening he visited his Highness Prince Rupert, to whom he presented the two great Umbrella's.
1718 Entertainer No. 16. 109 To score out a Pattern of Umbrella's for the King of Bantam.
1727 A. Hamilton New Acct. E. Indies II. xxxvi. 45 King of the White Elephant, and of the twenty four Somereroes or Umbrellaes.
1745 P. Thomas True Jrnl. Voy. South-Seas 201 Mandarines..accompanied with all the Officers of their Tribunal, who surround them with Umbrella's and other Marks of their Dignity.
1849 A. H. Layard Nineveh & Remains I. i. x. 337 He is attended by two eunuchs, one holding the umbrella, the other his quiver and mace.
1888 Times 30 Oct. 6/1 The Shereefian Umbrella does not pass necessarily from father to son.
β.
1653 H. Cogan tr. F. M. Pinto Voy. & Adventures xxxiv. 135 Then next to them marches twelve men on horsback, called Peretandas, each of them carrying an Umbrello of carnation Sattin.
1678 J. Phillips tr. J.-B. Tavernier Indian Trav. ii. viii. 123 in tr. J.-B. Tavernier Six Voy. Upon each side of the Throne are plac'd two Parasols, or Umbrellos, the handles whereof are about eight foot high.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory (1905) iv. xi. 431/2 Then 24 Vnbrello's richly adorned and them as carry them 2 and 2 together.
1719 J. T. Philipps tr. B. Ziegenbalg Thirty-four Confer. 331 Women..attended him with Umbrello's,..and all the other Court Employments within Doors were all done by Women.
1745 E. Haywood Female Spectator No. 18 (1748) III. 301 Twelve stout Indians carried a canopy of yellow and green silk, under which all the royal family walked:—the rest had umbrelloes, supported by their own particular slaves.
(Hide quotations)


Thesaurus »
Categories »

2. A portable protection against bad weather, made of silk or similar material fastened on slender ribs, which are attached radially to a stick and can be readily raised so as to form a circular arched canopy.
α.
1634 T. Herbert Relation Some Yeares Trauaile 149 A Shagg or Yopangee which riding serues [in Persia] as an Vmbrella against raine.
1716 J. Gay Trivia i. 14 Good houswives..underneath th'Umbrella's oily Shed, Safe thro' the wet on clinking Pattens tread.
1765 H. Walpole Let. to J. Chute 3 Oct. Servants..walk about the streets in the rain with umbrellas to avoid putting on their hats.
1787 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 77 291 If the weather be rainy, an insulated umbrella may be carried in one hand.
1833 P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 52 It poured with rain, and my umbrella broke all to pieces.
1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits vi. 109 An Englishman walks in a pouring rain, swinging his closed umbrella like a walking-stick.
1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal I. i. 34 She always carried her stout little umbrella, winter or summer.
β. 16971 [see sense 1aβ. ].
1704 Swift Tale of Tub xi. 197 A large Skin of Parchment..served him for a Night-cap when he went to Bed, and for an Umbrello in rainy Weather.
1709 W. King Art of Love (new ed.) 99 I might have made you such a fellow, As should have carry'd my Umbrello, Or bore a flambeau by my chair.
1731 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 37 32 An Umbrello, suspended by a Packthread tied to the Handle of it, became strongly Electrical.
1732 Inventory Sir R. Sutton's Goods 7 Four Umbrellows.

[thistleingrey]

Thank you!