Etymology Dictionary

UMBER,  a species of brown ochre.  (F.,—Ital.,—L.)   In Shak. As You Like It, i. 3. 114.—F. ombre, used shortly for terre d'ombre, 'beyond-sea azur, an earth found in silver mines, and used by painters for shadowings;' Cot.   [As 'beyond-sea azur' is certainly ultramarine, it must be a different preparation from the same material, viz. lapis lazuli; see Ultramarine.]—Ital. ombra, used shortly for terra d'ombra, umber (see Meadows, in the Ital.-Eng. part).   Wedgwood cites from a late edition of Florio:  'terra d'ombra, a kind of earth found in silver-mines used by painters for shadowings.'   Lit. 'earth of shadow,' i.e. earth used for shadowing; cf. Ital. ombreggiare, to shadow.   The Ital. ombra is from Lat. umbra, shadow; see Umbrage.   ¶ See Wedgwood (p. 746), who notes that 'the fable of the pigment taking its name from Umbria [which is only a guess by Malone] is completely disproved by the Span. name sombra (shade); sombra di Venecia, Venetian umber; sombra de hueso, bone-umber.'   Some paintings of the Ventetian school in the Fitzwilliam Museum are remarkable for their umbered or sombre appearance.   Cf. also F. ombré, 'umbered or shadowed,' Cot.; and see Sombre.