Anyone know where this fine word comes from, and why? I looked it up in my Canadian Oxford, and it says:

1 offence; a sense of slight or injury (esp. give or take umbrage at)

2 archaic a shade b what gives shade

and also lists umbrageous as an adj.

and for the whole lot, says [Middle English from Old French, ultimately from Latin umbraticus from umbra: see UMBRA]

So I saw UMBRA, and that says:

1 the fully shaded inner region of a shadow cast by an opaque object, esp. Astronomy the area on the earth or moon experiencing the total phase of an eclipse

2 the dark central part of a sunspot


So how did all that come to mean "take offence"? And also, has anyone here ever heard it used as "giving offence," as the dictionary definition says it can be? - "I gave Sue umbrage when I told her she looked fat in that dress."

Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.