The Daily Word for August 30, 2021

 

umbriferous - adjective - British - casting a shadow or shade (Lexico.com/collinsdictionary.com)

In my opinion, the Brits have always been a bit more articulate than Americans, which makes sense since they invented the language, and after a few hundred years, carried it over with them to Jamestown, etc., where it gradually devolved. Yesterday, I was reminded of our distant past with Great Britain as I, a DAR member, and an assortment of costumed and plain-clothed history buffs celebrated the 240th anniversary of Washington and Rochambeau's revolutionary march to Yorktown through my hometown of Westfield. Despite being a polysyllabic mouthful (and who has time for words over one syllable anyway), umbriferous is usable in a figurative and literal sense. For example, some of yesterday's imitators pretending to be Washington, Rochambeau, Ben Franklin (who definitely was not present at the time of the actual march) and the musket-carrying militia looked a bit umbriferous to me. Perhaps it was the cumbersome quality of their costumes, their height (the originals stood about 5'4" not 6 feet) or just their dubious expressions?  In any case, you can be sure that not one knew the definition of umbriferous. But a real Brit probably would. I doubt any were on hand, though, for obvious reasons. 

Personally, I will use umbriferous when I correct people who look at my garden and say, "I like your yard." (I think I might have brought this pet peeve up in another blog. If so, I apologize.) Snobbishly insulted, I can snap back, "It is an umbriferous English garden, not a yard." (Umbriferous would refer to the shade cast by numerous trees.) That should do it. Of course, anyone from Great Britain, who knows that every backyard in the U.K. is a "garden" regardless if there is anything exceptional growing, would never make the mistake to begin with. They know better as they have a heightened aesthetic sense even in the presence of weeds. To most Americans, a yard is a yard is a yard regardless of whether you have macadam or Bellagio's fountains in back of your home. Don't ask me why this is so as I have no idea. Indolence, maybe? Or blurred vision? Both? 

To clean up any degree of confusion, any umbriferous dialogue, we should try to be more specific as a country. After all, there is nothing wrong with clarity or even historical accuracy. (Maybe Ben Franklin should stay home in another ten years.)

Enjoy your Monday! 

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