umbrage: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for January 9 is:

umbrage \UM-brij\ noun
1 : shade, shadow
2 : shady branches : foliage
3 a : an indistinct indication : vague suggestion : hint b : a reason for doubt : suspicion
*4 : a feeling of pique or resentment at some often fancied slight or insult

Example sentence:
"He's not willing to pay for the A-list players we need to win a championship," said one player of the team's owner, who, not surprisingly, took umbrage at the statement.

Did you know?
"Deare amber lockes gave umbrage to her face." This line from a poem by William Drummond, published in 1616, uses "umbrage" in its original sense of "shade, shadow," a meaning shared by its Latin source, "umbra." ("Umbella," the diminutive form of "umbra," means "a sunshade or parasol" in Latin and is an ancestor of our word "umbrella.") Beginning in the early 17th century, "umbrage" was also used to mean "a shadowy suggestion or semblance of something," as when Shakespeare, in _Hamlet_, wrote, "His semblable is his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more." In the same century, "umbrage" took on the pejorative senses "a shadow of suspicion cast on someone" and "displeasure, offense"; the latter is commonly used today in the phrases "give umbrage" or "take umbrage."

* Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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