High or Low Dudgeon? An Umber Umbrella in Umbria knows.

I recently used the phrase "he was in high dudgeon." I've never heard anyone speak of someone being in low or mid-level dudgeon, only in the high version. Dudgeon is a mystery word. In the 1300s the word dudgeon was used for a kind of wood used in knife handles, and may have come from a French word. But that has nothing to do with dudgeon of any elevation.

Dudgeon now, and since the 1570s, means furious or resentful or a bit of both, and is similar to umbrage. While it may have come from the Italian word aduggiare that means "overshadow" (it was originally spelled duggin; my cousin Marvin Duggins is rarely even in low dudgeon), its etymology, according to etymonline.com, is unknown.

I think it likely to be tied to aduggiare, since umbrage has a similar etymological and current sense. Umbrage, if you didn't know, means offense, annoyance, and/or displeasure. Its etymology is more certain. It came to English in the early 1400s from the Middle French word ombrage, which meant shade or shadow. The Middle French got it from the Latin word umbraticum, which meant "of or pertaining to shade", and was the neuter form of umbraticus (same meaning), which came from umbra, the Latin word for shade. While there were many figurative uses of umbrage until the 1600s the only one that is used today is the shadow of offense, which was first recorded in the 1610s. The phrase "to take umbrage at" has been used since the 1670s.

Of course, umbra is a good word for shadow, particularly in astrology. But it originally - in the 1590s - was used of a ghost (see good words for ghost here) and wasn't used of the shadow caused by an eclipse until the 1670s.

The word adumbrate also comes from the Latin root, as does the color umber.

Umber arrived in English in the 1560s, coming from Latin either through Middle French (ombre, as in terre d'ombre) or Italian (terra di ombra) or from Umbra, the feminine form of Umber that means "belonging to Umbria." Of course the color Sienna also came from that region of Italy, but that's a post of another color.

We have all these words coming from the Latin word for shade and have yet to talk about umbrella. The Late Latin word umbrella (meaning sunshade or parasol) was actually altered from the Latin word umbella because of the influence of umbra. Bet you didn't know umbra was influential, did you?

While an umbrella is protection from the sun in Umbria (and throughout the Mediterranean region) it is shelter from the rain in England. It was used first by women in England, starting about 1700, but by the 1750s the men realized they were getting wet, too.

So don't take umbrage if your umber umbrella creates an umbra in Umbria. It might lead to you being in low dudgeon.