amber
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈam.bə/
ipa: /ˈæm.bɚ/
rhymes: -æmbə(ɹ)
Forms: form: ambers
Etymology: From Middle English ambre, aumbre, from Old French aumbre, ambre, from Arabic عَنْبَر (ʕanbar, “ambergris”), from Middle Persian 𐭠𐭭𐭡𐭫 (ʾnbl /⁠ambar⁠/, “ambergris”). Compare English lamber, ambergris. Displaced Middle English smulting (from Old English smelting (“amber”)), Old English eolhsand (“amber”), Old English glær (“amber”), and Old English sāp (“amber, resin, pomade”).
* The nucleotide sequence "UAG" is named "amber" for the first person to isolate the amber mutation, California Institute of Technology graduate student Harris Bernstein, whose last name ("Bernstein") is the German word for the resin "amber".
Senses: examples: text: Ambre is hote and drye […] Some say that it is the sparme of a whale.
ref: 1526, The Grete Herball:
text: As for Amber Grice, or Amber Cane, which ist most sweet myngled with other sweete thynges: some say it commeth from the rocks of the Sea. […] Some say it is gotten by a fish called Azelum, which feedeth upon Amber Grece, and dyeth, which is taken by cunnyng fishers and the belly opened, and this precious Amber found in hym.
ref: 1579, The Booke of Simples, fol. 56 (contained in Bulleins Bulwarke of Defence against all Sicknesse, Soarnesse, and Woundes)
text: The head of this fish is as hard as stone. The inhabitants of the Ocean sea coast affirme that this fish casteth foorth Amber; but whether the said Amber be the sperma or the excrement thereof, they cannot well determine.
ref: 1600, John Pory (translator), A Geographical Historie of Africa (original by Leo Africanus), page 344
text: Slaves […] with silver Censors […] perfum'd the air with Amber, Aloes wood, and other Scents.
ref: 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, letter, 18 Apr 1717
glosses: Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale.
examples: text: The leaves of the foreſt were loaded with manna, pure amber dropped from every bough, honey diſtilled from the rifted rock, and the humming bee, drunk with joy, ſtrayed from flower to flower, forgetful of his burſting cells.
ref: 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:
glosses: Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale.
Formerly thought to be the product of a plant.
examples: text: With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery,
With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery.
ref: c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
text: Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit.
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
text: To shew this by example, we reade of Sabina Poppcea, to whom nothing was wanting, but shame and honestie, being extremely beloved of Nero, had the colour of her haire yellow, like Amber, which Nero esteemed much of, […] .
ref: 1637, Monro, his expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment (called Mac-Keys Regiment), republished in 1999 →ISBN, page 102
text: Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […]. (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)
ref: 2012 March 23, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2012, page 128:
glosses: A hard, generally yellow to brown translucent or transparent fossil resin from extinct coniferous trees of the pine genus, used for jewellery, decoration and later dissolved as a binder in varnishes. One variety, blue amber, appears blue rather than yellow under direct sunlight.
examples: text: And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ezekiel 1:4:
glosses: A yellow-orange colour.
examples: text: While earlier controllers provided concurrent ambers, present practice is to indicate a minimum intergreen period of 4 s.
ref: 1974, Traffic Planning and Engineering, page 366:
text: Also flashing ambers are not operational at this type of crossing.
ref: 2000, Traffic Engineering & Control, volume 41, page 201:
text: >Problem: Red-red signals are too time consuming when traffic density is higher.
I don't find them time consuming at all. I find them identical to ambers.
ref: 2004 January 14, AZGuy, “Turn Signal Research shows amber no more effective then red”, in rec.autos.driving (Usenet):
glosses: The intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights, which when illuminated indicates that drivers should stop when safe to do so. See also yellow light.
examples: text: an amber codon, an amber mutation, an amber suppressor
text: For example, to cross a temperature-sensitive mutation with an amber mutation, amber suppressor cells are infected at the low (permissive) temperature.
ref: 2007, Molecular Genetics of Bacteria, edition 3, page 333:
text: Double ambers revert at 10⁻⁸−10⁻⁹, and therefore, reversion is negligible. Double-amber mutants are made by crossing single-amber mutants with each other.
ref: 2007, Jonathan C. Kuhn, “Detection of Salmonella by Bacteriophage Felix 01”, in Salmonella: Methods and Protocols, pages 27–28:
topics: biochemistry
biology
chemistry
genetics
medicine
microbiology
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: The stop codon (nucleotide triplet) "UAG", or a mutant which has this stop codon at a premature place in its DNA sequence.
examples: text: […] in response to the actions I just described, business was given the green light, and now we seem to be on amber.
ref: 1973, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Banking, Currency, and Housing, Hearings, Reports and Prints of the House Committee..., page 53:
glosses: Hesitance to proceed, or limited approval to proceed; an amber light.
Synonyms: sense: intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights
word: yellow
sense: obsolete: the waxy product of the sperm whale
word: ambergris
Derived terms: acid of amber
ambeer
Amber
amber alert
ambered
amberfish
amber fluid
amber forest cockroach
amber gambler
amber-greace
amber greace
amber-grease
amber grease
amber-grece
amber grece
amber greece
amber-greece
amber-greese
amber-grese
amber grese
amber grice
amber-grice
amber-griece
amber griece
amber-griese
amber griese
amber gris
amber-gris
amber grise
amber-grise
amberiferous
ambering
amberish
amberjack
amberlike
amber liquid
amber nectar
amberoid
amberous
amber pudding
amber seed
ambersnail
amber tree
amberware
amber wine
amber wood cockroach
ambery
ambrite
black amber
gray amber
grey amber
preserved in amber
salt of amber
sweet-amber
Related terms: ambergris
ambrette
liquidambar
pomander
yellowhammer
copal