Question: Can you tell me the origin of the word "bumbershoot" for umbrella? I had never heard this word until recently.
Answer: You may be surprised to learn that "bumbershoot" apparently grew out of a late 19th century craze for parachuting. Newspapers and journals of the period reveal that parachuting was all the rage in the 1880s and 1890s. Since no airplanes were available, of course, people would launch themselves from hot-air balloons. The parachutes they used to check their falls were large, billowing cloths. We don't recommend that you try this yourself.
The popularity of this sport, combined with the similarity in the appearance of the jumpers' parachutes to umbrellas, seems to have contributed to the coinage of "bumbershoot." The "bumber-" part of the word is an alteration of the "umbr-" in "umbrella," and the "-shoot" ending is apparently an alteration of the "-chute" in "parachute."
"Bumbershoot" first appeared in print around 1896, and it has persisted in use as an occasional, humorous synonym of "umbrella." A similar but even less common word is "bumbersol," formed by blending "bumbershoot" and "parasol." Both "bumbershoot" and "bumbersol" are Americanisms.
Question: I'm writing a wedding ceremony for use this spring, and I wanted to include the concept of "bearing witness." I'd like to present it as the couple bearing witness to one another before their community, and as the community bearing witness to the couple's words of commitment. Would this be an appropriate use? I'm also wondering about the origin of the phrase.
Answer: To "bear witness" simply means "to testify" or "to bring testimony." A marrying couple may bear witness (of their love or commitment) before their community. However, to say that the community "bears witness" to the couple's words of commitment is an unidiomatic use of the phrase - unless the community is actually to stand and testify that yes, they heard what the couple said to each other, or unless you mean to imply that the community will take news of the commitment out into the world and testify to it to others. What the community is really doing in a traditional wedding ceremony is simply witnessing the couple's words of commitment.
As for the origin of "bear witness," the earliest evidence we've seen is in a passage dating from 1300, which in modern English would be something like "nor bear any but truthful witness." The use of the phrase does not seem to have changed much over the centuries.
Question: The expression "one fell swoop" has always baffled me because I've never seen the word "fell" used in this way in any other context. Can you cast some light on this matter for me?
Answer: The phrase "at one fell swoop," which was uttered by Shakes-peare's character Macduff when he learned that Macbeth had murdered his wife and children, originally suggested both suddenness and savagery. The metaphor was that of a hawk swooping down on defenseless prey, and the word "fell" meant "cruel, fierce, ruthless."
Since Shakespeare's time "fell" in this adjectival sense has become a rarely used term, found mostly in literary, rhetorical or poetic contexts. Although not obsolete, this sense of "fell" is not familiar to most people.
As "fell" disappeared from people's vocabularies, the meaning of "fell swoop" changed as well. The phrase continued in use, but people gradually lost awareness of the underlying notion of cruelty and ruthlessness in "fell," which had no meaning for them, focusing instead on "swoop" and the suddenness of the act. Today the phrase, which is usually introduced by "in" rather than Shakespeare's "at," is neutral in application and does not necessarily suggest a disastrous event. It has in effect become an idiom meaning "all at once."