Of International Interest, Somewhat

From Jessie in Germany:

This morning at work, Jesse Gibson came in and posed a question to the room (there were a couple of English speakers there from all over the place): Who knows what a bumbershoot is? (He said bumbershoot, as opposed to bumpershoot).

I said, "It's an umbrella." And that was right. I thought that bumpershoot was one of those things that Dad just made up (he does that sometimes, you know).

Jesse explained that he had been watching CNN World and the weather girl (not to be confused with The Weathergirls) asked if anyone knew what a "bumbershoot" was. Someone emailed in and said it comes from Pennsylvania Dutch and means "umbrella". The fact that I knew the word (and no one else had any idea) seemed to prove it.

I did not think Dad had made up that word. I thought it was what the British called umbrellas. I was way off.