bumbershoot
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of bumbershoot
First recorded in 1895–1900; bumber-, a facetious alteration of umbrella + -shoot, respelling of -chute in parachute
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I hypothesize that bumbershoot became a faux Britishism because of a confluence of factors.
From Slate • Nov. 4, 2011
A book published that year, War Propaganda and U.S., noted: "To many upper-class Americans there was nothing so thrilling as having an Englishman around the house, complete with Oxford accent, school tie, and bumbershoot."
From Slate • Nov. 4, 2011
In the early '90s, the writers of Frasier used the notion of bumbershoot-as-Britishism to underpin this exchange between the anglophile Niles and his English crush, Daphne: Niles: Take my bumbershoot.
From Slate • Nov. 4, 2011
There wasn't a bumbershoot of any description on the Lyric stage.
From Time Magazine Archive
To the men, he shrugged and joked, “One must stay a step ahead of the weather. Wouldn’t do to be caught in the rain without a bumbershoot, what?”
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
