Etymologically
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umbro

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈʊm.broː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈum.bro][1]

Forms

umbrō (present infinitive umbrāre, perfect active umbrāvī, supine umbrātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin umbra (“shade, shadow”) + -ō.[2][1] De Vaan connects umbra with Lithuanian ùnksna (“shade”) and reconstructs a form ⟨*unksrā-⟩, which would have become ⟨*unsrā-⟩, ⟨*unfrā-⟩ and then ⟨umbra⟩; he finds no likely root for it.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro,[3] whose Menippean satires use it of the eyes and sleep: Conte reads umbrantur somnō pupulae, the eyes are shaded by sleep, and Georges the same with nōn.[4][5] Lucretius uses it of covering the mother, the earth, with roses.[6][4]

Semantic evolution

It means to cast a shadow on, to shade, and to cast a shade without an object, as of shoots in Columella.[2][6][4] It is mostly poetic or post-Augustan and is not found in Cicero.[6] Virgil has temples shaded with oak, of a wreath,[6][5] and Statius uses the passive with an accusative of the part shaded, of temples shaded with Olympic branches and of cheeks covered with a beard.[6][4] Silius Italicus writes of an oak whose foliage shaded the top of a mountain, and Claudian of darkening the daylight with weapons.[6]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it in his Menippean satires.[3][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the earth covered with roses.[6][7]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of temples shaded with oak.[6][7]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of shoots casting shade.[6][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To cast a shadow on, to shade.[2][6]
  2. To cover, wreathe (the head or temples); (passive) to have shaded or covered.[6][4]
  3. (without an object) To cast a shade.[6][4]

Word family

Usage notes

Umbrō, genitive Umbrōnis, is also the name of a river of Etruria, the modern Ombrone, in Pliny the Elder and Rutilius Namatianus.[1][5] A medieval umbro found in glosses meant the grayling, a fish.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de