umbrage

Etymology

From Middle French ombrage (“umbrage”), from Old French, from Latin umbrāticus (“in the shade”), from umbra (“shadow", "shade”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʌm.bɹɪdʒ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

umbrage (countable and uncountable, plural umbrages)

1. A feeling of anger or annoyance caused by something offensive.
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[[Episode 16]]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare & Co.; Sylvia Beach, OCLC 560090630; republished London: Published for the Egoist Press, London by John Rodker, Paris, October 1922, OCLC 2297483:

     —He took umbrage at something or other, that muchinjured but on the whole eventempered person declared, I let slip.

   • 1960, Muriel Spark, The Bachelors, London: Macmillan, Chapter 10,

     She looked very neurotic, moving in a jerky way, her body giving little twitches of habitual umbrage.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VI:

     If she knew [a psychiatrist was] observing her son with a view to finding out if he was foggy between the ears, there would be umbrage on her part, or even dudgeon.

2. A feeling of doubt. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. Leaves that provide shade, as the foliage of trees.
4. (obsolete) Shadow; shade.
   • 1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act V scene 1

     [...] but in the verity of extolment I take him to be a soul of great article and his infusion of such dearth and rareness as, to make true diction of him, his semblable in his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

Verb

umbrage (third-person singular simple present umbrages, present participle umbraging, simple past and past participle umbraged)

1. (transitive) To displease or cause offense.
2. (transitive) To shade.

Noun

umbrage m (plural umbrages)

1. shadow