Umbrellas are very common objects that can be very useful.
Umbrellas are useful objects that we normally use very often in our daily life. Let’s find out more about them!
- An umbrella is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs, which is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole.
- Its role is the protection out of rain or sun.
- An alternative name for the umbrella is parasol.
- Parasol though is mostly referred to as the umbrellas which protect people from the sunlight.
- Parasols sometimes are also called sunshades.
- First use of parasols comes from 3-4 thousand-year-old ago testimonials in Egypt and Assyria.
- They were probably made of palm leaves.
- During this period parasols were considered as a sign of wealth and power and their owners were rich people.
- In British slang, you can also use the words brolly, rainshade or gamp.
- In American slang, you can rarely replace the word umbrella with the word bumbershoot.
- Word umbrella comes from the Latin word “umbros” which means shade or shadow.
- According to the Oxford University Dictionary, the word umbrella evolved during the 17th century.
- The first recorded usage of the word umbrella was in 1610.
- The word “parasol” is a combination of para, meaning to stop or to shield, and sol, meaning sun.
- Parasol is originated from France.
- In the 19th century instead of the umbrella, it was commonly used the word parapluie, which is also originated from France.
- Until the 18th century, umbrellas were considered only as female accessories.
- The first man who publicly carried an umbrella was an Englishman
- His name was Jonas Hanway.
- Modern umbrellas are quite similar to the ones used in ancient Greece and Rome.
- Umbrellas are also used in order to decorate exotic cocktails.
- Modern-day umbrellas are coated with Teflon.
- This makes their canopy waterproof.
- Most of the modern umbrellas are Chinese.
- There are testimonials that umbrellas may be used in ancient China.
- More specifically it is said that the first waterproofed umbrellas were used over 3 thousand years ago in China.
- Nowadays there is a city in China that has over a thousand umbrella factories.
- It is the city of Shangyu.
- Umbrellas can be used as weapons.
- Bulgarian dissident writer Georgi Markov was assassinated in 1978 by KGB agent who carried deadly poison in his modified umbrella.
- Steel ribbed umbrellas were invented in 1852 by Samuel Fox.
- First working “folding umbrella” was introduced in 1969 by Bradford Philips.
- Over 33 million umbrellas are sold in United States each year.
- Rihanna released along with Jay-Z a famous song named “Under my umbrella” in 2007.
- “Under my umbrella” is not a song about umbrellas, but it is a love song.
- In 2019 Netflix released a successful series named “The umbrella academy”.
- 45 million households watched the series during the first month since its release!
- In the famous series of how I met your mother a yellow umbrella was very important for the plot.
- Ted met the mother while she was holding a yellow umbrella under the rain.
- This is why many fans of the series are referred to their other half as “their yellow umbrella”.
