Word Story 14:

Take Umbrage
Meaning: To be displeased or offended by the actions of others.
Origin
There doesn't seem too much we can do with umbrage other than to take it, i.e. become displeased - the word is no longer used in any other context.
What is umbrage exactly? It sounds like some form of distasteful patent medicine.  Step back to the 15th century and umbrage didn't mean displeasure. The word was inherited into English from the Latin 'umbra', meaning shade. Umbrage came to be used in English to mean shade or shadow, or the foliage of trees which cause shadows.  For example, this piece from John Lydgate's 1426 translation of De Guileville's Pilgrimage of the life of man:

 ...my visage which is clouded with umbrage

'Taking umbrage', i.e. sitting under a shady tree, had then no negative associations. Over time, the figurative use of umbrage to mean displeasure evolved, probably from the simple association of darkness with gloomy thoughts. In that meaning, umbrage was first said to be given rather than taken, as this example from Sir Nathaniel Brent's 1620 translation of the Historie of the council of Trent shows:

He... therefore besought them to take away all those words that might give him any Umbrage.

The shade/disfavor metaphor is made explicit in this piece from Sir Robert Naunton's Fragmenta regalia, 1635:

On the fall of the Duke he stood some years in umbrage, and without employment.

In Context:
I hope you don’t take umbrage with what I’m about to say but, “Haven’t you put on a bit of weight?”
Think About It:
Umbrage and umbrella both are often found on gloomy days but there the similarities end. While an umbrella keeps the elements from falling upon one’s head, the other actually allows them to enter in!