# nectar
## English
### Etymology

From Latin nectar, from Ancient Greek νέκταρ (néktar, “nourishment of the gods”), from Proto-Indo-European *neḱ- (“perish, disappear”) + *-tr̥h₂ (“overcoming”), from *terh₂- (“to overcome, pass through, cross over”).

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈnɛk.tə/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (US) IPA: /ˈnɛk.təɹ/
* Rhymes: -ɛktə(ɹ)
* Hyphenation: nec‧tar

### Noun

nectar (countable and uncountable, plural nectars)
* (chiefly mythology) The drink of the gods. [from 16th c.]
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:They pourd in soveraine balme and Nectar good, / Good both for erthly med'cine and for hevenly food.
* (by extension) Any delicious drink, now especially a type of sweetened fruit juice. [from 16th c.]
* (botany) The sweet liquid secreted by flowers to attract pollinating insects and birds. [from 17th c.]

#### Derived terms

* amber nectar
* Thomas's nectar bat

#### Related terms

* nectarine
* nectarous
* nectary

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### See also

* ambrosia
* pollen

### Verb

nectar (third-person singular simple present nectars, present participle nectaring, simple past and past participle nectared)
* (intransitive) To feed on nectar.
** 2010, Robert Michael Pyle, Mariposa Road: The First Butterfly Big Year, page 123:On the lane below, more orangetips nectared on spring beauties and violets.

### References

* Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “nectar”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

### Anagrams

* Canter, Cretan, canter, carnet, centra, creant, recant, tanrec, trance

## Dutch
### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Noun

nectar m (plural nectars)
* (Greek mythology, Roman mythology) nectar, beverage drunk by the Olympians
    Synonym: godendrank
    Coordinate term: ambrozijn
* (botany, insects) nectar, liquid produced by flowers

## French
### Etymology

From Latin nectar, from Ancient Greek νέκταρ (néktar), from Proto-Indo-European *néḱtr̥h₂, derived from the roots *neḱ- (“to perish, disappear”) and *terh₂- (“to overcome”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /nɛk.taʁ/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

nectar m (plural nectars)
* nectar (all meanings)

#### Derived terms

* nectaire

#### Descendants

* → Turkish: nektar

### Further reading

* “nectar”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Latin
### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈnek.tar/, [ˈnɛkt̪är]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈnek.tar/, [ˈnɛkt̪är]

### Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek νέκταρ (néktar), from Proto-Indo-European *néḱ-tr̥h₂, derived from the roots *neḱ- (“to perish”) and *terh₂- (“to overcome”).

#### Noun

nectar n sg (genitive nectaris); third declension
* nectar
** 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.432–434:[...] aut cum liquentia mella stīpant et dulcī distendunt nectare cellās, aut onera accipiunt venientum, [...].[…], or when [honeybees] press the liquid honey and swell the cells with sweet nectar, or gather the burdens of incoming [bees], [...].

##### Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem), singular only.

##### Related terms

* nectareus

##### Descendants

* → English: nectar
* French: nectar
* Italian: nettare
* Portuguese: néctar
* Spanish: néctar

#### References

* “nectar”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “nectar”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “nectar”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “nectar”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray

### Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

#### Verb

nectar
* first-person singular future passive indicative of nectō

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek νέκταρ (néktar) or French nectar.

### Noun

nectar n (plural nectaruri)
* nectar