Etymologically
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sombrero

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /səmˈbɹɛɹ.əʊ/, /sɒmˈbɹɛɹ.əʊ/ (UK); /səmˈbɹɛɹ.oʊ/, /sɑmˈbɹɛɹ.oʊ/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish sombrero (“hat; originally parasol”),[2][3][4][5][6] from sombra “shade”,[2][3][4][5][6] which Etymonline and Barnhart trace to Late Latin subumbrare (“to shade”),[3][4] from Latin umbra “shade”.[3] It is related to somber and umbrella.[2][4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

An Oriental umbrella or parasol (1598), a sense now obsolete.[7][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The broad-brimmed hat, common in Spain and Spanish America, is recorded from 1770.[7][3][4] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1599.[5] In microbiology the word names a kind of bacterial plaque (1971).[7]

Timeline

  • 1598 – a parasol, now obsolete.[7][3]
  • 1770 – the broad-brimmed hat.[7][3][4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A large hat of straw or felt with a broad brim and a tall crown, worn especially in Mexico and the American Southwest.

Word family

  • sombreroed
  • somber
  • umbrella
  • umbra

References

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