sunny Mediterranean climate, carrying around umbrellas to
protect themselves from the sun by providing a “little shadow”
for themselves.z Other words you may know that are derived from umbr include
umbra (a region of complete shadow resulting from a total
obstruction of light), penumbra (the partial shadow outside of a
complete shadow), sombrero, and somber.z The word umbrage is also related to this root. As noted in John
Ayto’s Dictionary of Word Origins, “The expression WDNHXPEUDJH,
‘take offense,’ arises from a metaphorical extension of ‘shadow’
to ‘suspicion.’” In other words, suspicious statements and people
are shady, and when someone makes a statement that we suspect is
insulting, we take umbrage.Adumbrate (verb)
- To give a sketchy outline of; to suggest, disclose, or outline partially.
- To foreshadow vaguely; to intimate.
z +HUH¶V DQ H[DPSOH RI WKH ¿UVW VHQVH RIadumbrate in context:
“When quizzed by the English teacher, the student was able to
EULHÀ\DGXPEUDWHWKHPDMRUWKHPHVLQWKHQRYHO ́z 7KHVHFRQGVHQVHDSSHDUVLQWKLVFRQWH[WVHQWHQFH ³7KH¿UVWVFHQH
in the play, where she notices the new buds on the trees, adumbrates
her spiritual rebirth in the second scene.”A Root with Traction: tract
z The root tract comes from the Latin verb traho, which means “to
drag, pull, draw, or haul.” It can be found in such words as tractor,
traction, extract, retract, distract, attract, and intractable (“not able
to be pulled”).