Why is 'brolly' an abbreviation of umbrella?

[Mattk]

Shouldn't it be 'brelly'?

[Quizmonster]

According to The Oxford English Dictionary, it is a (quote) "clipped and altered" version of umbrella. I guess it is the 'altered' element that explains the fact that it isn't brelly.

[stewey]

Slightly off topic; but, shouldn't "umbrella" really be spelled "umbralla"?

[Quizmonster]

Despite the Latin umbrA - shade - being the original source, it seems we took it from the Italian ombrElla, similar to the Spanish umbrEla and the French ombrElle. It never seems to have been anything but an 'e' in there!

[Kiki-frog]

Thanks guys, I now have a bad case of Rihanna earworm

[stewey]

Thanks for that explanation, Quizmonster.

[pizza]

no soz stewey n a lot of people do say umberella not umbrella but must admit I take my brolly wiv me.

[baza]

didn't we get it from the welsh for umbrella which if I recall from watching s4c is umbrella.

[stewey]

And how many of you use the term "bumperchute"?

[plautus]

As a teenager I pestered my parents to buy me a gent's umbrella. I would not leave the house without it, irrespective of the weather. Interestingly, the term "brolly" seems to have been mainly used with reference to a gent's umbrella and not to a lady's.

[MarkRae]

Bumbershoot, you mean...?

[doctordb]

Steve mclaren-'The wally with the brolly'

[plautus]

The Welsh for umbrella is ymbarel, which is clearly a loan word from English.

[pizza]

lol bumperchute

[shaneystar2]

My Mum always called an umbrella a Gamp .
Probably because of Sarah Gamp in Dickens .

[stewey]

The "p" is obviously an inverted "b":)

[douglas9401]

I'm more of a gamp man myself.

[Kiki-frog]

Shaney - my mum said gamp as well. After Sarah Gamp as you say. Maybe it was a more common term than I thought then

[boxtops]

There you are, it can be umbrolly too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umbrella

My father always called his big black umbrella a gamp.

[plautus]

Gamp was a very common term in Victorian/early 20C times, derived, as you say, from Sarah Gamp who went everywhere with her umbrella.

[guilliebrougues]

Gamp is another old fashioned word for an Umbrella hence the song That's why the lady is a tramp - Thats why the brolly is a gamp.