amber

[am-ber] /ˈæm bər/

noun

a pale yellow, sometimes reddish or brownish, fossil resin of vegetable origin, translucent, brittle, and capable of gaining a negative electrical charge by friction and of being an excellent insulator: used for making jewelry and other ornamental articles.

the yellowish-brown color of resin.

adjective

of the color of amber; yellowish-brown:

amber fields of grain.

made of amber:

amber earrings.

Origin of amber

1350-1400; Middle English ambre < Old French < Medieval Latin ambra < Arabic ʿanbar ambergris; confusion of the dissimilar substances perhaps because both were rare, valuable, and found on seacoasts

Related forms

amberlike, ambery, amberous, adjective

Amber

[am-ber] /ˈæm bər/

noun

a female given name.

Examples from the web for amber

Good quality amber is used for the manufacture of ornamental objects and jewellery.
A common misconception is that amber is made of tree sap it is not.
amber in these mountains is tightly embedded in a lignite layer of sandstone.
Bony amber owes its cloudy opacity to minute bubbles in the interior of the resin.
The aromatic and irritating fumes emitted by burning amber are mainly due to this acid.
Divers have been employed to collect amber from the deeper waters.
In far east, blue amber has been masterfully worked into artistic carvings.
This pressed amber yields brilliant interference colors in polarized light.
Beads of amber occur with anglosaxon relics in the south of england.
amber was valued as an amulet and it is still believed to possess medicinal properties.

British Dictionary definitions for amber

amber

/ˈæmbə/

noun

a yellow or yellowish-brown hard translucent fossil resin derived from extinct coniferous trees that occurs in Tertiary deposits and often contains trapped insects. It is used for jewellery, ornaments, etc
(as modifier): an amber necklace, related adjective succinic

fly in amber, a strange relic or reminder of the past

a medium to dark brownish-yellow colour, often somewhat orange, similar to that of the resin
(as adjective): an amber dress

an amber traffic light used as a warning between red and green

Word Origin

C14: from Medieval Latin ambar, from Arabic `anbar ambergris

Word Origin and History for amber

mid-14c., "ambergris, perfume made from ambergris," from Old French ambre, from Medieval Latin ambar "ambergris," from Arabic 'anbar "ambergris." In Europe, the sense was extended, inexplicably, to fossil resins from the Baltic (late 13c. in Anglo-Latin; c.1400 in English), which has become the main sense as the use of ambergris has waned. This formerly was known as white or yellow amber to distinguish it from ambergris, which word entered English early 15c. from French, which distinguished the two substances as ambre gris and amber jaune. The classical word for Baltic amber was electrum (cf. electric).

amber in Science

amber

(ām'bər)

A hard, translucent, brownish-yellow substance that is the fossilized resin of ancient trees. It often contains fossil insects.

Our Living Language : Certain trees, especially conifers, produce a sticky substance called resin to protect themselves against insects. Normally, it decays in oxygen through the action of bacteria. However, if the resin happens to fall into wet mud or sand containing little oxygen, it can harden and eventually fossilize, becoming the yellowish, translucent substance known as amber. If any insects or other organisms are trapped in the resin before it hardens, they can be preserved, often in exquisite detail. By studying these preserved organisms, scientists are able learn key facts about life on Earth millions of years ago.

amber in Technology

language
1. A functional programming language which adds CSP-like concurrency, multiple inheritance and persistence to ML and generalises its type system. It is similar to Galileo. Programs must be written in two type faces, roman and italics! It has both static types and dynamic types.
There is an implementation for Macintosh.
["Amber", L. Cardelli, TR Bell Labs, 1984].
2. An object-oriented distributed language based on a subset of C++, developed at Washington University in the late 1980s.
(1994-12-08)

amber in the Bible

(Ezek. 1:4, 27; 8:2. Heb., hashmal, rendered by the LXX. elektron, and by the Vulgate electrum), a metal compounded of silver and gold. Some translate the word by "polished brass," others "fine brass," as in Rev. 1:15; 2:18. It was probably the mixture now called electrum. The word has no connection, however, with what is now called amber, which is a gummy substance, reckoned as belonging to the mineral kingdom though of vegetable origin, a fossil resin.