ombrifuge

English

Etymology

Possibly a blend of ombro- +‎ refuge or directly from ombro- +‎ -i- +‎ -fuge. Known to be first used by Robert Browning in 1869.

Noun

ombrifuge (plural ombrifuges)

(chiefly poetic, uncommon) A refuge from rain, especially an umbrella. [from 19th c.]
- 1869, Robert Browning, “The Pope” (chapter X), in The Ring and the Book, volume IV, Smith, Elder & Co., page 21, line 465:
  The belfry proves a fortress of a sort, / Has other uses than to teach the hour, / Turns sunscreen, paravent and ombrifuge.
- 1872, Charles Stuart Calverley, “The Cock and the Bull”, in Fly Leaves, 3rd edition, New York: Henry Holt and Company, page 115:
  And so forth; and, complete with hat and gloves, / One on and one a-dangle i, my hand, / And ombrifuge (Lord love you !), case o' rain, / I flopped forth, 'sbuddikins! on my own ten toes, […]
- 1897 September, “Hats And Hat-Worship”, in Macmillan's Magazine, volume LXXVI, number 455, page 344, column 2:
  And truly a very remarkable year was that, well-nigh two centuries ago, when the first Ombrifuge, or Umbrella, was unfurled in London Streets.
- 1898 September 10, Bradnock Hall, “A New Net”, in Country Life, volume IV, number 88, page 300, column 1:
  The “ombrifuge” (I quote the undergraduate again) was a showy but not robust specimen of its kind, and owing to the immense weight of the water, and the impossibility of getting a good purchase, I made a mess of it.
- 1911 March 8, E. G. V. Knox [i.e., E. V. Knox], “Not Cricket: The Scandalous Affair of My Umbrella”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume CXL, page 170, column 1:
  To some their silken hats are dear, to some / Their overcoats of astrakhan or fur, / To me my ombrifuge, my childhood's chum. / He said, " I will inquire about it, Sir."
- 2002 [2001], John Fuller, chapter 3, in The Memoirs of Laetitia Horsepole, by Herself, Great Britain: Vintage, page 89:
  Laet—Would you have her wear Shoes & Stockings in this Heat? Or be seated like an Infanta beneath a silk Ombrifuge, canopied from the glorious Light?