bumbershoot

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The Word of the Day for November 18 is:

bumbershoot   \BUM-ber-shoot\   noun
     : umbrella

Example sentence:
     As the light sprinkle gradually turned into steady rain, Uncle Winston 
said, "I'm glad I remembered to carry my bumbershoot!"

Did you know? 
     Umbrellas have plenty of nicknames. In Britain, "brolly" is a popular 
alternative to the more staid "umbrella." Sarah Gamp, a fictional nurse who 
toted a particularly large umbrella in Charles Dickens' novel _Martin 
Chuzzlewit_, has inspired some English speakers to dub oversize versions 
"gamps." 
"Bumbershoot" is a predominantly American nickname, one that has been recorded 
as a whimsical, slightly irreverent handle for umbrellas since the late 1890s. 
As with most slang terms, the origins of "bumbershoot" are a bit foggy, but it 
appears that the "bumber" is a modification of the "umbr-" in "umbrella" and 
the "shoot" is an alteration of the "-chute" in "parachute" (since an open 
parachute looks a little like an umbrella).