bumbershoot : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 18 is:

bumbershoot \BUM-ber-shoot\ noun
: umbrella

Example sentence:
As the light sprinkle gradually turned into steady rain, Uncle Winston said, "I'm glad I remembered to carry my bumbershoot!"

Did you know?
Umbrellas have plenty of nicknames. In Britain, "brolly" is a popular alternative to the more staid "umbrella." Sarah Gamp, a fictional nurse who toted a particularly large umbrella in Charles Dickens' novel _Martin Chuzzlewit_, has inspired some English speakers to dub oversize versions "gamps."
"Bumbershoot" is a predominantly American nickname, one that has been recorded as a whimsical, slightly irreverent handle for umbrellas since the late 1890s. As with most slang terms, the origins of "bumbershoot" are a bit foggy, but it appears that the "bumber" is a modification of the "umbr-" in "umbrella" and the "shoot" is an alteration of the "-chute" in "parachute" (since an open parachute looks a little like an umbrella).

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