umbraculum

Forms

umbrāculum n (genitive umbrāculī); second declension^[1] The syncopated spelling umbrāclum is also found.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin umbra (“shade”) + -culum,^[2][1][3] or from the verb derived from it, umbrō (“to shade”).^[1] De Vaan connects umbra with Lithuanian ùnksna (“shade”) and reconstructs it as *unksrā-, which could have become ⟨umbra⟩ through intermediate stages; he finds no likely root for it.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Varro,^[3][4] who in his work on agriculture advises building umbracula near the threshing floor, “where the men can go in the heat at midday”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It named anything that kept off the sun: a shelter or arbour (Varro, Virgil's Eclogues, Tibullus), and specially a parasol, which Ovid's Art of Love tells the reader to hold up himself.^[2][5] Cicero uses the plural for the shady retreats of scholars, contrasting Theophrastus' school with “the sun and dust” of public life.^[2][5] Seneca uses it once, by an editor's correction, for an empty shadow of something.^[2]

Later the Itala uses it of a refuge, and Salvian writes of shamelessness “without the least shade of modesty”.^[6] Medieval writers used it of protection and shelter, figuratively of divine protection, of a canopy, tent or tabernacle, and of a helmet's visor.^[7][8] Stelten gives “covering for a tabernacle”.^[9]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of shelters by a threshing floor.^[2][3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the shady retreats of philosophers.^[2][5][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a bower in the Eclogues.^[2][5][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a parasol.^[2][5][4]
• 435/439 AD – Salvian uses it of a trace of modesty.^[6][4]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it of divine protection.^[7][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shelter from the sun, a shade; an arbour.^[2][5]
2. A parasol, sunshade.^[2][5]
3. (plural) A shady retreat, a place of study away from public life.^[2][5]
4. An empty form, a shadow.^[2]
5. (Late Latin) A refuge; a trace.^[6]
6. (Medieval Latin) Protection; a canopy, tent or tabernacle; a helmet's visor.^[7][8][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson