Because so many words have come into English from Latin (and from French, which brings along Latin roots indirectly), we have many near-synonyms, one from each root language, that have different connotations and usage. Umbrella (device for protecting from rain)Ĭrepuscule is a fancy word for twilight, the former coming from a Latin root, the latter from Middle English. Sombra (the shady side of a bullfight arena) Other words incorporating umbra in their etymologies include:Īdumbrate (to foreshadow to suggest to obscure) Mark Wilson, The Indianapolis Star, 20 August 2017Ī related word describes the partial shadow that surrounds the area of greatest darkness, penumbra ( pene- is the Latin prefix meaning “almost”). This will result in the moon's umbra, or darkest part of its shadow, to be projected onto the Earth. It will be the first time in 99 years that the path of the eclipse will trace a shadowy swath across the entire country as the moon slowly passes in front of the sun. This conical shadow is what is what causes darkness in an eclipse:
: 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 Umbra itself was first used in English to mean “phantom” or “ghost”-a meaning that came straight from one of its uses in Latin and was translated in some literary use in the 17th and 18th centuries, when shade was also used to mean “ghost.” Its more general meaning of “a shaded area” followed, but the specific one most pertinent to a solar eclipse is this one: The Latin word for shade or shadow is umbra, a word that has spread its shadow over a wide range of words in English.
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