sunshade

Etymology

It is formed from English sun + shade.^[2][3][4] Old English had sunsceadu, glossed "veil",^[3][5] but it is recorded only once, in the Harley Glossary, where it seems to translate a Latin word for a bridal veil or headscarf, or perhaps a Latin gloss meaning the sun's shadow; the OED says the modern word was formed again in the 18th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Something that gives shelter from direct sunlight, or the shelter itself: 1741, in David Watson's translation of Horace's Odes.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the word only to 1842, as a parasol,^[3][6] and Dictionary.com to 1835–45.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the general sense, the word was applied to several things made to keep the sun off: an awning over a window or along the front of a building (1774),^[2] a parasol (1798), at first one carried in the hand,^[2][3] a screen or tube on a telescope (1829),^[2] and a kind of hat or hood (1868).^[2][7] Etymonline finds the awning on a building by 1851.^[3] In the 20th century it was used for a visor or blind against glare through a car window (1918),^[2] and in the plural for tinted glasses (1963), like sunglasses.^[2]

Timeline

• 1741 – something that shelters from the sun; the shelter itself.^[2]
• 1774 – an awning over a window or the front of a building.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1851.^[3]
• 1798 – a parasol.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date this sense to 1842.^[3][6]
• 1829 – a screen or tube that cuts down sunlight in a telescope.^[2]
• 1868 – a hat or hood that protects from the sun.^[2]
• 1918 – a visor or blind against glare through a car window.^[2]
• 1963 – sunshades, sunglasses.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Anything that shields people or things from the sun's rays.^[6][8][2]
2. A parasol, or a large umbrella fixed to a table or set up on a beach.^[6][9][2]
3. An awning or blind over a window or along the front of a building; also a brise-soleil.^[6][9][2]
4. A visor or screen that keeps the glare off a car's windscreen or windows.^[2]
5. A lens hood, or a screen on a telescope, that reduces the sunlight entering it.^[6][2]
6. A hat or cap with a brim or peak worn against the sun.^[7][2]
7. sunshades (plural): sunglasses.^[2]

Related words

• sun
• shade
• parasol
• umbrella

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers