amber
English
/ˈam.bə/, /ˈæm.bɚ/
noun
Definitions
- (obsolete) Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale.
- A hard, generally yellow to brown translucent fossil resin, used for jewellery. One variety, , appears blue rather than yellow under direct sunlight.
- A yellow-orange colour.
- (British) The intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights, which when illuminated indicates that drivers should stop short of the intersection if it is safe to do so.
- (biology) The stop codon (nucleotide triplet) "UAG", or a mutant which has this stop codon at a premature place in its DNA sequence.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English aumbre derived from Middle French ambre borrowed from Arabic عَنْبَر (ambergris, amber) borrowed from Middle Persian 𐭠𐭭𐭡𐭫 (ambergris).
Origin
Middle Persian
𐭠𐭭𐭡𐭫
Gloss
ambergris
Timeline
Distribution of cognates by language
Geogrpahic distribution of cognates
Cognates and derived terms
- amberfish English
- amberiferous English
- amberlike English
- amberous English
- ambersnail English
- ambery English
- ambrite English
- fish English
- snail English
- ambar Latin
- liquidus Latin
- ambra Italian
- amber Dutch, Flemish
- âmbar Portuguese
- aumbre Middle English
- ómra Irish
- عَنْبَر Arabic
- عَنْبَر Arabic
- ámbar Galician
- عنبر Persian
- amber Turkish
- ambre Middle French
- 俺八兒 Chinese
- ambari Swahili
- ʾmbl Middle Persian
- 𐭠𐭭𐭡𐭫 Middle Persian
- عَنْبَر Andalusian Arabic