Literary notes about umbra (AI summary)
The term "umbra" in literature weaves together both the tangible and the symbolic, serving as a versatile image ranging from the scientific to the metaphoric. It often denotes the literal dark core of a shadow—as seen in precise descriptions of sunspots and eclipses [1][2][3]—while simultaneously evoking the evanescence of human existence and memory, such as when authors speak of a "nominis umbra" to imply the fading legacy of a once-mighty name [4][5][6]. At times, it operates as a metaphorical veil that shrouds truth or distorts perception, reminiscent of musings on mortality where we are portrayed as "dust and shadow" [7][8]. Even in contexts that touch upon geography and the subtle gradations of light, "umbra" enriches the narrative with its dual sense of physical shade and figurative obscurity [9][10][11].
- A solar spot usually consists of two parts, the nucleus and the umbra .
— from Letters on Astronomy in which the Elements of the Science are Familiarly Explained in Connection with Biographical Sketches of the Most Eminent Astronomers by Denison Olmsted - When an eclipse of the moon occurs, it appears totally eclipsed, if entirely within the earth's umbra, and partially eclipsed, if partially within it.
— from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851 by Various - If a bright body, A , be larger than the dark body, B , there will be two kinds of shadows—viz., the umbra and the penumbra .
— from Popular Scientific Recreationsin Natural Philosphy, Astronomy, Geology, Chemistry, etc., etc., etc. by Gaston Tissandier - Otherwise, he would have been for me a bare nominis umbra .
— from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 8, January, 1851 by Various - For the “Romani nominis umbra,” the shadow of the mighty race whom they had conquered, lay heavy on our forefathers for centuries.
— from Scientific Essays and Lectures by Charles Kingsley - Macy had become nominis umbra —the shadow of a name.
— from The Disagreeable Woman: A Social Mystery by Alger, Horatio, Jr. - Umbra mean literally "dust and shadow": the phrase, however, is quoted from Horace "pulvis et umbra sumus"— we are dust and ashes .
— from Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson Selected and Edited With an Introduction and Notes by William Lyon Phelps by Robert Louis Stevenson - Yes, moral or physical, we are all but gunpowder and smoke— pulvis et umbra sumus !
— from Memoirs by Charles Godfrey Leland - Each spot is quite sharply divided into an umbra and a penumbra.
— from Astronomy for Young Folks by Isabel Martin Lewis - The dark portion within the shadow has all the light excluded from it and is called the umbra .
— from Physics by Charles H. (Charles Henry) Smith - In this also he failed, for he was interned from June till December with Yugoslav officers at Nocera Umbra.
— from The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 1 by Henry Baerlein
