parasol

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpæɹəˌsɒl/ (UK); /ˈpɛɹəˌsɑl/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French parasol,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Italian parasole (“protection from the sun”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from parare “to shield, ward off”^[2][5] and sole “sun”,^[2][3][4][5] from Latin sol (“sun”).^[2][3][4][5] It is related to parapet and solar.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Anything serving as a defence from the sun's rays (1616).^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

The OED dates the sense of a portable sunshade to 1660,^[7][5] noting that it was used by people of high rank in the East and by fashionable women in Europe.^[7][4] The word was applied in 1914 to an aircraft with its wings raised above the fuselage.^[7]

Timeline

• 1616 – a defence from the sun (Barnhart, OED).^[3][7]
• 1660 – a portable sunshade (OED, Merriam-Webster).^[7][5]
• 1914 – a parasol-winged aircraft.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A light, usually small umbrella carried as a shade from the sun; a sunshade.

Word family

• parasoled
• parasol mushroom

Related words

• parapet
• parachute
• solar
• umbrella

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press