LVE's saturday sinopedia: umbrella, the

Umbrella, The

The umbrella is an object that those brought up in the Western world are very familiar with. It is used to keep dry when the sky would have you wet. But here in China the umbrella never leaves a woman's side. She whips it out when it is raining, true, but more often than not she has it with her to shield herself from the sun. While in America bronzed, sun-tanned skin is the sought-after ideal, in China, it is the opposite. A woman with white skin is the epitome of beauty. And thus, the umbrella is a staple item in any venture out of doors.

I think it's interesting that we only use umbrellas for rain in the West when the etymological origin of the word "umbrella" is from the Latin for "shade" or "shadow", umbra. This implies that the object was used to create shade from the sun. And do you remember a time when it was called a "parasol" (literally, "against the sun")?

At some point there was a switch-over and people throughout the west began to use it for shelter against the rain instead of the sun. In French it is called a parapluie ("against the rain") and in Spanish it's a paraguas ("against water"). I suppose at some point it was called something else in these languages. But then again, who knows? The Germans are quite clever and have found a way around the confusion by combining the two uses and calling it a Regenschirm which means "rain shade". The Chinese, however have managed to confuse me even more by calling the umbrella yŭ săn which literally means "rain parasol" or "rain umbrella".

So, I've got nothing. I suppose this Saturday Sinopedia entry has raised more questions than it has answered, but we at http://www.lavacheespagnole.com/ like to keep you pondering life's great questions (and maybe the not-so-great ones as well).


Stay tuned for next week's LVE's Saturday Sinopedia article: Squatter, The