Word To Use Today: umbrageous.

Here's a word as thick as soup, and a good sustaining soup, too.

Umbrageous...you can practically taste the richness.

As well as being swooningly luscious in itself, the word umbrageous is particularly good-value because it means two quite different things: it can describe someone who is always ready to be resentful or to take offence; or it can describe the leaves of trees that cast shade.


photo, believe it or not, of the desert city of Tashkent by Zlerman

In England at the moment, in deep winter, umbrageous foliage is mostly to be found on the occasional yew tree or in deep dark pine woods, but the thin and spiky leaves of these evergreen trees don't give the sense of heavy plenty the word umbrageous deserves. This is really one for you lot in the sunny southern summer.

A readiness to take offence, though...ooh, this time of year, when people are herded together for hours with all the people they manage to avoid the rest of the time, is exactly the season for that.

In fact, it's going to be rather tempting to try being rather umbrageous myself.

Word To Use Today: umbrageous. This word comes from the French ombrageux, from the Old French umbre, shade, from the Latin umbra, which means shade or shadow.