Talk:bumbershoot

This word is invented. "primarily British usage" is wrong, and is a product of American naivety. Just because an American actor says a word (made up by an American author) in a truly criminal Mockney accent, doesn't make it either a real word or "primarily British usage". Y'all got fooled y'hear?

And Ian Fleming was American when? And it predates the talkies by quite a bit, was in Anglistische Forschungen in 1901. Robert Ullmann 08:13, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Baum was American, which is the earlier reference. Chambers gives the etymology as "U.S. facetious". Which issue of AF would it be in, and which article? 1901 would put it in the first seven issues, which are not very easy to come by. Are you certain about this?

Fleming wasn't American, but he didn't write the lyrics; Richard and Robert Sherman did. 66.66.188.32 23:40, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Might this be a perhaps-intentional corruption of a compound or a compound of perhaps-intentional corruptions of Germanic roots meaning "protection against thunder": Dutch donder + schutten (cf. donderbus → blunderbuss) or German Donner + schützen? Antediluvian67 (talk) 17:27, 12 November 2017 (UTC)

Hmm, interesting idea. Its always good to explore. The etymology I heard, though, is that its a blend of umbrella and parachute with bum at the beginning "to make it more interesting". I doubt that we will find citations for *umbershoot, etc, though, since the word seems to have appeared all at once rather than evolving "normally". —Soap— 12:09, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

I was wrong .... we have bample citiations for both forms now. —Soap— 17:15, 14 April 2022 (UTC)