Word: amber Part of Speech: noun 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". Pronunciation: /ˈæm.bəː/, [ˈæm.bəː], [ˈæm.bəː] ~ [ˈæm.bɐ̝ː], /ˈɛːm.bəː/, [ˈɛːm.bəː] ~ [ˈɛːm.bɐ̝ː] 1. Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: Ambre is hote and drye […] Some say that it is the sparme of a whale. Example: 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. 2. Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: 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. 3. 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. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery, With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery. Example: 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. 4. A yellow-orange colour. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 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. 5. 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. Labels: Australia, Commonwealth, UK, countable, uncountable Example: While earlier controllers provided concurrent ambers, present practice is to indicate a minimum intergreen period of 4 s. Example: Also flashing ambers are not operational at this type of crossing. 6. The stop codon (nucleotide triplet) "UAG", or a mutant which has this stop codon at a premature place in its DNA sequence. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: an amber codon, an amber mutation, an amber suppressor Example: For example, to cross a temperature-sensitive mutation with an amber mutation, amber suppressor cells are infected at the low (permissive) temperature. 7. Hesitance to proceed, or limited approval to proceed; an amber light. Labels: uncountable Example: […] in response to the actions I just described, business was given the green light, and now we seem to be on amber.