umbrage

English

WOTD – 13 July 2007

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French ombrage (“umbrage”), from Old French ombrage, from Latin umbrāticus (“in the shade”), from umbra (“shadow, shade”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʌm.bɹɪdʒ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

umbrage (countable and uncountable, plural umbrages)

1. A feeling of anger or annoyance caused by something offensive.
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[[Episode 16]]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     —He took umbrage at something or other, that muchinjured but on the whole eventempered person declared, I let slip.

   • 1960, Muriel Spark, The Bachelors, London: Macmillan, Chapter 10,

     She looked very neurotic, moving in a jerky way, her body giving little twitches of habitual umbrage.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VI:

     If she knew [a psychiatrist was] observing her son with a view to finding out if he was foggy between the ears, there would be umbrage on her part, or even dudgeon.

2. A feeling of doubt. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. Leaves that provide shade, as the foliage of trees.
4. (obsolete) Shadow; shade.
   • 1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act V scene 1

     [...] but in the verity of extolment I take him to be a soul of great article and his infusion of such dearth and rareness as, to make true diction of him, his semblable in his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

Synonyms

• (feeling of anger or annoyance): annoyance, displeasure, odium, offense, resentment, huff, miff, peeve, pique
• (feeling of doubt): suspicion

Derived terms

• take umbrage
• umbrageous

Translations

feeling of anger or annoyance

• Chamicuro: suchi
• French: ombrage (fr) m
• German: Anstoß (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: megütközés
• Icelandic: gremja (is) f, skapraun (is) f
• Romanian: supărare (ro) f, ranchiună (ro) f

shadow

• French: ombrage (fr) m
• German: Schatten (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Icelandic: skuggi (is) m, forsæla f
• Romanian: umbră (ro) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Icelandic: þykkja f, laufskrúð n, laufskrúð sem veitir forsælu n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Verb

1. (transitive) To displease or cause offense.
2. (transitive) To shade.

Translations

to shade

• French: ombrager (fr)
• Icelandic: skyggja (is), veita forsælu
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: umbri (ro), adumbri (ro)

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Middle French

Noun

umbrage m (plural umbrages)

1. shadow