Parasol (pronounced par-uh-sawl or par-uh-sol)
(1) A type
of lightweight umbrella used, especially by women, as a sunshade.
(2) In
architecture, a roof or covering of a structure designed to provide cover from
wind, rain, or sun.
(3) In
bar-tending, a miniature paper umbrella used as a decoration in tropical-themed
cocktails.
(4) In
aviation, as parasol wing, a wing not directly attached to the fuselage but
held above it, supported by either cabane struts or a pylon. Additional bracing may be provided by struts
or wires extending from the fuselage sides.
1610–1620:
From the French & Middle French parasol
from the Italian parasole, the
construct being para- (to shield) + sole (sun); the Italian sole being derived from the Classical
Latin sōl (sun). The rarely used
adjectival form is parasoled. A curious
and long extinct Americanism from the late nineteenth century was bumbershoot.
Umbrella (pronounced uhm-brel-uh)
(1) A
portable, usually circular cover for protection from rain or sun, consisting of
a fabric held on a collapsible frame of thin ribs radiating from the top of a
carrying stick or handle.
(2) In
marine biology, flattened cone-shaped contractile, contractile, gelatinous body
of a jellyfish or other medusa.
(3) In
military jargon, something that covers or protects from above such as aircraft
safeguarding surface forces or a general descriptor of an independent nuclear
deterrent.
(4) By
analogy with the military use, any over-arching protection.
(5) Something,
as an organization or policy that covers or encompasses a number of groups or
elements.
1600–1610:
From the Italian ombrella and umbrella (parasol, sunshade), diminutive
of ombra (shade), an earlier variant
of ombrello from the Late Latin umbrella, an alteration (under the influence
of the Latin umbra (shade or shadow))
of the Latin umbella (sunshade). In both Latin and Italian, the –ella suffix was used with female nouns
to form diminutives and was the feminine equivalent of –ello.
Of Sun and Rain
Although structurally, essentially identical, the convention of use is that a parasol protects from the sun and an umbrella, rain. In French this is formalised with parapluie (umbrella), the construct being para (to shield) + pluie (rain); pluie derived from the Latin pluvia (rain) whereas parasol is para + sol (sun).
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