Etymology Dictionary

UMBRELLA,  a screen carried in the hand to protect from sunshine or rain.  (Ital.,—L.)   Now used to protect from rain, in contradistinction to a parasol; but formerly used to protect from sunshine, and rather an old word.   Cotgrave translates F. ombraire by 'an umbrello, or shadow,' and F. ombrelle by 'an umbrello.'  'Now you have got a shadow, an umbrella, To keep the scorching world's opinion From your fair credit;' Beaum. and Fletcher, Rule a Wife, iii. I. 2.—Ital. umbrella (see below); better spelt ombrella, 'a fan, a canopie,...also a kind of round fan or shadowing that they vse to ride with in sommer in Italy, a little shade;' Florio.   Dimin. of Ital. ombra, a shade.—Lat. umbra, a shade; see Umbrage.   ¶ The true classical Lat. form is umbella; umbrella is an Ital. diminutive, regularly formed from ombra; the spelling with u is found even in Italian.  Florio has umbella, umbrella, 'a little shadow, a little round thing that women bare in their hands to shadow them; also, a broad brimd hat to keepe off heate and rayne; also, a kind of round thing like a round skreene that gentlemen vse in Italie in time of sommer.'   This account of the word, in the edition of Florio of 1598, clearly implies that the word umbrella was not, in that year, much used in English; for he does not employ the word.   Doublet, umbel.