Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of ombrelo
Coloured illustration of ombrelo
#1824 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

umbrella, parasol

Word origin

From Italian ombrello, a diminutive of Latin umbra, 'shade'. The thing was a sunshade long before it was a rain shield, which is why so many European languages name it after shadow rather than water.

Origin
Italian
Root
umbra
English cognates
umbrella, umbrage, sombre

Examples

.

She opened the parasol against the warm sun.

?

Do you have an umbrella for the rain?

.

He lost his umbrella in the street.

is the generic canopy on a stick, and the root says shade rather than rain: it is a cousin of , not of . When the weather matters, Esperanto builds the compound and says so - for the rain one, sunombrelo for the parasol you sit under on a terrace.

This is a small lesson in how the language prefers to work. English keeps two unrelated words, umbrella and parasol, and leaves the learner to memorise both; Esperanto keeps one root and bolts the weather onto the front. Note that on its own is perfectly usable and very common - reach for the compound only when the listener would otherwise picture the wrong sky.

Where this fits

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Esperanto · Free printables

ombrelo: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "ombrelo" (umbrella, parasol): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 37.