English

Proper noun

Amber

1. A female given name, popular in the 1980s and the 1990s.
   • 1854 Harper's Magazine, Volume IX, June to November 1854, page 667 ("Lady Amber Mayne")

     The youngest daughter of the Marchioness of Summerdown had one of these quaint, pretty names - Amber! - and what a pretty creature she was!

   • 1944 Kathleen Winsor, Forever Amber, Chicago Review Press, 2000, ISBN 1556524048, page 14

     And then she said softly, "Sarah - I think I'll name her Amber - for the colour of her father's eyes - "

   • 2005 Ali Smith, The Accidental, Penguin (2006), ISBN 9780141010397, page 64:

     A bit raddled, maybe thirty, maybe older, tanned like a hitchhiker, dressed like a road protester, one of those older women still determinedly being a girl; all those eighties feministy still-political women were terribly interested in what Eve did. Hippie name. Amber. Ridiculous name.

2. A surname​ of uncertain origin.
   • 1901 Frederick Swainson, Acton's Feud: A Public School Story, BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2007, ISBN 1426481713, page 14

     Amber, the half, generally waltzed round our forwards, and when he secured he passed the ball on to Aspinall.

Translations

Etymology 2

From a form of the Hindi आसमान ‎(āsmān, “the heavens”).

Alternative forms

• Ambar

Proper noun

Amber

1. A female given name.
2. A ruined city in Rajasthan, India.

Anagrams

• bream, embar

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈambər/

Proper noun

Amber ?

1. A female given name, Amber

English

amber pendants

Noun

amber ‎(countable and uncountable, plural ambers)

1. (obsolete) Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale. [14th-18th c.]
   • 1526, The Grete Herball:

     Ambre is hote and drye […] Some say that it is the sparme of a whale.

   • 1579, The Booke of Simples, fol. 56 (contained in Bulleins Bulwarke of Defence against all Sicknesse, Soarnesse, and Woundes):

     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.

   • 1600, John Pory (translator), A Geographical Historie of Africa (original by Leo Africanus), page 344:

     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.

   • 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, letter, 18 Apr 1717:

     Slaves […] with silver Censors […] perfum'd the air with Amber, Aloes wood, and other Scents.

2. A hard, generally yellow to brown translucent fossil resin, used for jewellery. One variety, blue amber, appears blue rather than yellow under direct sunlight. [from 15th c.]
   • 1594 — Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene III:

     With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery,

     With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery.

   • 1594 — Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene II:

     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.

   • 1637, Monro, his expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment (called Mac-Keys Regiment), republished in 1999 (ISBN 0275962679), page 102:

     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, […] .

   • 2012 March 1, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 128:

     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.)

3. A brownish yellow colour.

   amber colour:

4. (Britain) 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.
   • 1974, Traffic Planning and Engineering, page 366:

     While earlier controllers provided concurrent ambers, present practice is to indicate a minimum intergreen period of 4 s.

   • 2000, in the Journal of Traffic Engineering & Control, volume 41, page 201:

     Also flashing ambers are not operational at this type of crossing.

   • 2004 January 14, "AZGuy" (username), "Turn Signal Research shows amber no more effective then red", in rec.autos.driving, Usenet:

     >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.

5. (biology, genetics, biochemistry) The stop codon (nucleotide triplet) "UAG", or a mutant which has this stop codon at a premature place in its DNA sequence.

   an amber codon, an amber mutation, an amber suppressor

   • 2007, Molecular Genetics of Bacteria, edition 3, page 333:

     For example, to cross a temperature-sensitive mutation with an amber mutation, amber suppressor cells are infected at the low (permissive) temperature.

   • 2007, Jonathan C. Kuhn, Detection of Salmonella by Bacteriophage Felix 01, in Salmonella: Methods and Protocols, pages 27–28:

     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.

Synonyms

• (intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights): yellow (US)
• (obsolete: the waxy product of the sperm whale): ambergris

Antonyms

• (intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights): red, green

Derived terms

Related terms

• ambergris
• ambrette
• liquidambar
• pomander
• yellowhammer

Translations

See also

• copal

Adjective

amber ‎(comparative more amber, superlative most amber)

1. Of a brownish yellow colour, like that of most amber.
   • 2006, Jeffrey Archer, False Impression, page 270:

     They all moved safely through the first green and then the second, but when the third light turned amber Jack's taxi was the last to cross the intersection.

   • 2008, Elizabeth Amber, Raine: The Lords of Satyr, page 211:

     Ahead, a cool breeze swept the pale morning sun across a grassy meadow turned amber by morning's frost.

Translations

Verb

amber ‎(third-person singular simple present ambers, present participle ambering, simple past and past participle ambered)

1. (transitive, rare) To perfume or flavour with ambergris.

   ambered wine, an ambered room

2. (transitive, rare) To preserve in amber.

   an ambered fly

3. (transitive, rare, chiefly poetic or literary) To cause to take on the yellow colour of amber.
   • 1885, America the Beautiful;

     For purple mountains majesty; for amber waves of grain.

   • 2007, Phil Rickman, Fabric of Sin: A Merrily Watkins Mystery;

     Home to the mosaic of coloured-lit windows in the black and white houses, the fake gas lamps ambering the cobbles, sometimes the scent of applewood smoke.

   • 2008, Jeri Westerson, Veil of Lies: A Medieval Noir:

     The firelight flickered on her rounded cheeks, ambering the pale skin.

4. (intransitive, rare, chiefly poetic or literary) To take on the yellow colour of amber.
   • 2009, Jack Wennerstrom, Black Coffee, page 19:

     Westward along Lancaster Avenue, among the stone walls and broad driveways of imposing old houses—their lawns dappled with the shade of ambering maples and dusty, bark-peeled sycamores—

   • 2011, Tim Powers, On Stranger Tides:

     [T]hough many of the pirates protested against these energetic activities[,] he was only pleasantly tired when the lowering, ambering sun began to bounce needles of gold glare off the waves ahead;

See also

• electrum
• succinic
• succinic acid
• traffic light
• Appendix:Colors

Anagrams

• bream, embar

1. ↑ James F. Crow; William F. Dove (1995), “The Amber Mutants of Phage T4”, in Genetics, volume 141, issue 2, PMID 8647382, pages 439–442.
2. ↑ Nicholas Wright Gillham (2011), Genes, Chromosomes, and Disease: From Simple Traits, to Complex Traits, to Personalized Medicine.

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑm.bər/
• Hyphenation: am‧ber

Etymology

From Middle French ambre, from Arabic عَنْبَر ‎(ʿanbar, “ambergris”), from Middle Persian 𐭠𐭭𐭡𐭫 ‎(ambar, “ambergris”).

Noun

amber n ‎(plural ambers, diminutive ambertje n)

1. amber (colour of fossil resin)
2. (nonstandard) amber (fossil resin)

Synonyms

• (colour of fossil resin): barnsteengeel, barnsteenkleur
• (fossil resin): barnsteen

Related terms

• ambergrijs

Old English

Alternative forms

• ambor, āmber, ōmber

Etymology

Of disputed origin.

According to one theory, it is from Proto-Germanic *ambrijaz, *aimbrijaz ‎(“bucket”), from Proto-Indo-European *ambʰor- ‎(“tub, bucket”). If so, then cognate with Old Saxon ēmbar, Old High German ampri, eimbar, Ancient Greek ἀμφορεύς ‎(amphoreús, “vased shaped ornament with a narrow neck”) (whence Latin amphora), Sanskrit अम्भृण ‎(ambhṛṇá, “a vessel used in preparing Soma juice”).

According to another theory, the Proto-Germanic forms derive from a compound equivalent to *ainaz ‎(“one”) + *bariz ‎(“that which is utilised for carrying; bar, crib”).

A third theory considers the Old English term to have been borrowed from Latin amphora. Compare German Eimer.

Noun

amber m

1. bucket

Old High German

Alternative forms

• ampri, eimbar, einber, eimmer

Etymology

Of disputed origin. See amber for more information.

Noun

amber m

1. bucket

Synonyms

• (bucket): einber m

Descendants

• German: Eimer

Serbo-Croatian

Noun

amber m ‎(Cyrillic spelling амбер)

1. amber (fossil resin)

Synonyms

• ambra
• ambar

Turkish

Etymology

From Arabic عَنْبَر ‎(ʿanbar).

Noun

amber ‎(definite accusative amberi, plural amberler)

1. Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale.
2. A common noun for nice-smelling things.
3. (biochemistry, genetics) The stop codon "UAG".

Derived terms

• akar amber
• amber ağacı
• amber asidi
• amber çiçeği
• boka nispetle tezek amberdir
• esmer amber
• misk amberi

Anagrams

• barem