Italian 'ombrella' — literally 'little shadow,' a sunshade the English repurposed for rain.
A device consisting of a circular canopy of cloth on a folding metal frame supported by a central rod, used as protection against rain or sometimes sun.
From Italian ombrella, diminutive of ombra (shade, shadow), from Latin umbra (shadow, shade, ghost), from PIE *h₂andʰ- (to shade, to shadow — though the PIE form is debated; some reconstruct *h₂n̥bʰro- for cloud/shadow). An umbrella is literally a little shadow — a portable shade-maker. The word originally referred exclusively to a sunshade (parasol); its re-purposing as a rain-shield was an English innovation, when the device was introduced to Britain in the 17th century. The Latin umbra has a rich semantic life: it also meant ghost or shade of the
An 'umbrella' is a portable shadow (Latin 'umbra'). A 'parasol' blocks the sun ('para' + 'sol'). Languages reveal their climate: Italians invented a word for portable shade; the English repurposed it for rain. German 'Regenschirm' (rain-shield) and 'Sonnenschirm' (sun-shield) distinguish the two