umbra - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Diagram of a large light source and a smaller occulting body, showing the relationships between the umbra, the region that receives no light from the source, so that it is fully shaded, the penumbra that receives light from only one part of the rim of the source, so that it is partly shaded, and the antumbra, that is so far from the occulting body that it receives light from the rim all the way around the source, though not from the full area of the light source.

Borrowed from Latin umbra (“shadow”). Doublet of umber.

umbra (plural umbras or umbrae or (obsolete) umbræ)

  1. The fully shaded inner region of a shadow cast by an opaque object.
    1. (astronomy) The area on the earth or moon experiencing the total phase of an eclipse.
  2. (astronomy) The central region of a sunspot.
  3. (chiefly literary) A shadow.
  4. (archaic) An uninvited guest brought along by one who was invited.
  5. One of the family Umbridae of mudminnows.
  6. One of genus Umbrina of drums (family Sciaenidae).
  7. (mathematics) An element of the umbral calculus.
    • 2009, Ernesto Damiani, Ottavio D'Antona, Vincenzo Marra, From Combinatorics to Philosophy: The Legacy of G.-C. Rota, (page 113)#:
      In order to set up such an algorithm, we need the notion of multiplicative inverse of an umbra. Two umbrae are said to be multiplicative inverse to each other when αγ ≡ u.

umbra f (plural umbres)

  1. female equivalent of umbre

umbra

  1. feminine singular of umbre

From Latin umbra (“shadow”).

umbra c (singular definite umbraen, not used in plural form)

  1. umber (pigment, colour)
  2. (as an adjective) umber (of a reddish brown colour)

Learned borrowing from Latin umbra.

umbra

  1. umbra

From Latin.

umbra (plural umbras)

  1. shadow

umbra

  1. feminine singular of umbro

umbra f (plural umbre)

  1. female equivalent of umbro

Generally connected with Lithuanian unksna (“shade”), from Proto-Indo-European *wnksrā-. This term is tentatively derived from Proto-Indo-European *(H)wenk- (“to bend”); however, the semantic leaps required to go from "bend" to "shade" are large and unlikely.[1]

Alternatively, if from Old Latin *omra, possibly from a Proto-Indo-European *h₂mr-u-, *h₂mrup-; related to Ancient Greek ἀμαυρός (amaurós, “dark”), Luwian 𒈠𒅈𒉿𒄿𒀀 (“rot”), and 𒈠𒊒𒉿𒄿 (“rotten”) (also see Hittite Maraššantiya, their name for the Kızılırmak River), and this Indo-European source is said to be a possible borrowing from a Semitic root *ḥ-m-r (“be red”), compare Arabic ح م ر (ḥ m r).[2]

umbra f (genitive umbrae); first declension

  1. shadow
    1. (figurative, by extension) shade, shady place, shadowy place
      • 8 CE, Ovidius, Metamorphoses 12.513:
        nudus Arboris Othrys erat nec habebat Pelion umbras
        Mount Othrys is devoid of trees; Mount Pelion does not have shade
      • 8 CE, Ovidius, Metamorphoses 10.88-90:
        Umbra loco deerat: qua postquam parte resedit dis genitus vates et fila sonantia movit, umbra loco venit.
        There was no shade there; but, when the poet—born of the god—sat down and moved the strings of his lyre, shade came to that spot.
  2. shade, ghost, phantom, apparition
  3. (plural) the realm of shades, the shades, the world below or underworld
    • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneis 4.25-26:
      “[...] vel Pater omnipotēns adigat mē fulmine ad umbrās,
      pallentīs umbrās Erebī noctemque profundam, [...].”
      “[...] or the Father almighty hurl me with his thunderbolt to the shades, the pallid shades and boundless night of Erebus [...].”
      (That is, the Underworld, or land of the dead. The repetition is an example of epanalepsis.)
  4. imperfect copy or representation of something, pretence, faint appearance
    • 63 BCE, Cicero, Pro Murena 6.13:
      in eo te umbram luxuriae reperturum putas?
      You think you shall find even a shadow of luxury in that man?
  5. shelter, cover
  6. leisure, rest
  7. drumfish

First-declension noun.

  1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 639
  2. ^ Whitehead, The Sound of Indo-European: Phonetics, Phonemics, and Morphophonemics, p. 13

From Latin umbra (“shade, shadow”).

umbra m (definite singular umbraen, indefinite plural umbraer or umbraar, definite plural umbraene or umbraane)

  1. (chemistry)
  2. a dark earthy colour
  3. (astronomy) the shade from a planet
  4. (astronomy, by extension) central region of a sunspot

umbra f

  1. definite nominative/accusative singular of umbră

umbra f (plural umbras)

  1. female equivalent of umbro

umbra

  1. feminine singular of umbro

umbra f (plural umbras)

  1. (obsolete) shade, shadow