Word of the Day

: July 24, 2015

umbra

noun UM-bruh

What It Means

1 : a shaded area

2 a : a conical shadow excluding all light from a given source; specifically : the conical part of the shadow of a celestial body excluding all light from the primary source

b : the central dark part of a sunspot

umbra in Context

During the eclipse, the moon was in the umbra of the earth's shadow for about 90 minutes.

"When the moon passes into the penumbra, it darkens the surface of the moon, making it look as if a 'bite' has been taken from the lunar surface. 'Totality' occurs when the moon is completely submerged in the umbra, and takes on a deep red hue." - Maria Rovito, The Snapper: Millersville University, April 9, 2015

Did You Know?

The Latin word umbra ("shade, shadow") has given English a range of words in addition to umbra itself. An umbrella can provide us with shade from the sun. So can an umbrageous tree-in this case, umbrageous means "affording shade." The connection to shade or shadow in other umbra words is less obvious. When we say someone takes umbrage, we mean they take offense, but in times past people used the word as a synonym of shade or shadow. Those two senses of umbrage influenced umbrageous, which can mean "inclined to take offense easily" as well as "affording shade."