Antumbra is a fancy term from current astronomy, a technical term not included in many modern dictionaries.
There was an annular (ring-like) eclipse of the sun on Monday October 3, 2005. Not every eclipse is total. Here’s an explanation from BBC News: “The Moon's orbit around the Earth is not perfectly round; the satellite's distance from the planet varies from about 356,000 to 407,000km (221,000 to 253,000 miles). This difference makes the Moon's apparent size in our sky fluctuate by about 13%. If the Moon happens to eclipse the Sun on the near side of its orbit, it totally blocks out the star (a total eclipse). But if the Moon eclipses the Sun on the far side of its orbit, the satellite will not completely obscure the star's disc - and a ring or annulus of sunlight is seen.
The effect is to throw an antumbra or negative shadow on the Earth's surface as the Moon moves across the face of the Sun. It is the track of this antumbra that is referred to as the path of annularity.”
The antumbral shadow is the negative shadow from an annular eclipse, when the Moon is not close enough to cover the Sun. An annulus of bright sunlight surrounds the Moon.
Origin of the word
antumbra < anti Latin, opposite of, of the same kind but situated opposite + umbra Latin, shade, shadow
A special NASA web page has been set up for this eclipse:
Other English Words from Umbra
Penumbra < paene, pene Latin ‘almost’ + umbra Latin ‘ shadow’
A penumbra is almost a shadow, in the same lexical way that a peninsula is almost an island (insula, Latin ‘island’). A penumbra is a partial shadow where the cast light is partly cut off by a body between the light source and the shadowed surface. In expanded meanings, a penumbra is a marginal or fringe area in which something is of lesser amount than in a central area.
In the physics of light, a penumbra is partial shade of varying degrees.
Burnt Umber is a well-known painter’s colour,
as is Raw Umber.
This sentence is printed in a burnt umber colour.
Umber is a brown earth darker in color than ocher and sienna due to manganese and iron oxides, used as a pigment by painters because it is permanent. Raw Umber is greenish-brown until it is heated to become the dark-brown Burnt Umber.
Does the pigment take its name from the Italian region of Umbria? Probably not, but Italian folk etymology connects Umbria with the Italian word ombra ‘shadow.’ Tuscans will tell you that Umbria lies in the shadow of its more illustrious neighbor, Tuscany, and that’s the origin of the Umbrian name. The many Umbrian hills and mountains cast long dark shadows over river valleys which are already darkened by lush chestnut groves and elm forests.
These are sweet and poetic stabs at meaning but the origin of the name Umbria may be lost to history in one of the many languages spoken in Italy before Latin conquered all, languages like Oscan or Etruscan, of which only slippery, polished fragments have survived the sandpaper of time.
Umber, the colour word, originally meant simply a dark hue that was shadow-coloured, probably from Middle English umber, umbre 'shade, shadow', itself from Middle French umbre, from Latin umbra 'shade.'
Umbrage
If you are an Umbrian, you may take umbrage at my dismissal of an etymology that is widely believed in Italy. Umbrage is resentment, annoyance or displeasure, shadowy emotions indeed!
(umbrage Middle French < umbraticus Latin ‘of the shade’ < umbratus ‘shaded’ < umbrare ‘to shade’ < umbra ‘shade,shadow.’) Umbrage can mean an area of shadow, an overshadowing power, the shade of a tree, a vague indication, a hint.
Adumbrate
To adumbrate is to give a shadowy hint of something. In the clearness of hindsight, those scattered protests throughout the countryside seemed to adumbrate a coming revolution.
(adumbrate < ad Latin ‘to,’ when used as a verbal prefix ad often intensifies the root meaning of the verb + umbrare ‘to shadow.’)
Northumbria: False Friend
The once Anglo-Saxon earldom of Northumbria may appear to bear the Latin root umbra but it does not. Northumbria means ‘kingdom north of the Humber, an English river name. Like most European river names, Humber is a very ancient river word, possibly from two Celtic roots that mean‘good well,’ but certainly related to the stock of Proto-Indo-European water words cognate with Sanskrit ambhas ‘water, river.’
Umbrella
An umbrella is a ‘little shade’ we carry to ward off rain or the sun. Umbrella entered English from Italian ombrella, a slight modification of the common Latin diminutive of umbra ‘shade,’ namely umbella parasol, umbrella. Other diminutive forms of umbra show up in these English words:
Umbracula (umbraculum Latin ‘parasol’) is a genus of mollusks known to collectors as umbrella shells, broadly distributed throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The top of its body is covered by a shell that protects the gills and soft viscera like an umbrella, hence the genus and the species name. It feeds by boring large holes into sponges—something we'd all like to do to selected co-workers at the office. The creature below is known to zoology as Umbraculum umbraculum.
Exumbrella (exo Greek ‘out of, on top of, outside’ + umbrella) is the top of the umbrella of a jellyfish. Its umbrella is the rounded, bell-like body of a jellyfish whose lower muscles contract to propel the creature through the water.
Obumbrate
Finally, it is always good to know at least one, obscure, silly word from the root under discussion and the adjective obumbrate fills the bill.
Let us use the adjective in an exemplary sentence: Time had made obumbrate the causes of the ancient quarrel.
Obumbrate means literally ‘shadowed over, clouded by doubt or shade.’ (obumbratus ‘overshadowed’ < ob Latin to, over + umbrare ‘to shadow, to cast shade upon.’)
© 2007
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