the.com/parasol
An umbrella that fights the sun instead of the rain, and looks fabulous doing it.
means A lightweight, often decorative handheld canopy used to shield oneself from the sun rather than the rain.
from From French parasol, borrowed from Italian parasole — literally 'for the sun,' stitched together from para- 'to guard against' (from parare, 'to shield') and sole 'sun' (from Latin sol). It's the sun-blocking twin of parapluie, 'against the rain,' and shares its protective para- with words like parachute, which guards against the fall.
- name origin
- From Italian for guarding against the sun
- status symbol
- Pale skin once signaled you avoided field labor
- victorian era
- Carried as flirtation tools with hidden signals
- japan
- Wagasa parasols made from bamboo and washi paper
- vs umbrella
- Same shape, opposite enemy
for instance
parasol steps — 16th-century venice bridge with umbrella-shaped stone steps designed to shed water
parasol ant — atta cephalotes species that farms fungus under leaf fragments in central/south america