umbo

See also: ụm bò

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

umbo

Wikipedia

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin umbō (“a shield boss”). Doublet of umbone.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʌm.bəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʌm.boʊ/
• Rhymes: -ʌmbəʊ

Noun

umbo (plural umbones or umbos or umboes)

1. (historical) The boss of a shield, at or near the middle and usually projecting, sometimes in a sharp spike.
   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page xii:

     It is thirteen inches diameter, made of wood covered with leather, and an iron plate decorated with nails and mouldings; the boss or umbo projects four inches.

   • 2023 March 21, Virginia Heffernan, “I Saw the Face of God in a Semiconductor Factory”, in WIRED‎:

     serves as the umbo of the region’s so-called Silicon Shield

2. (biology) A boss, or rounded elevation, or a corresponding depression, in a palate, disk, or membrane.
   1. (anatomy) An inward projection of the tympanic membrane of the ear.
   2. (zoology) One of the lateral prominences just above the hinge of a bivalve shell.
   3. (mycology) A bump or protrusion on the cap of a mushroom or toadstool.

Derived terms

• umbonal
• umbonic

See also

• boss

References

• “umbo”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “umbo”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• ombu