Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ʕNBR_1 ʕanbar ‘ambergris’: of obscure etymology. Perhaps a transfer of meaning from ʕanbar ‘sperm whale, cachalot (zool.)’, which is of similarly unclear origin, to the solid, wax-like, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of the sperm whale, found floating in tropical seas and used in perfume manufacture. Or it is the other way round, the name for the type of whale stemming from its fragrant excrements? – Lane lists ʕanbar not only under √ʕNBR, but also under √ʕBR (referring the reader from there to √ʕNBR). Is ʕanbar in any way related to ↗ʕabīr then? According to ClassAr lexicography, ʕabīr is a mixture of perfumes, containing (among many other things) also saffron; in some places it is even quated with ‘saffron’, as is also ʕanbar (see ʕNBR_3). – Any connection of ʕanbar ‘ambergris’ with Grk lamprós ‘bright, brilliant, radiant’ (with initial l- interpreted as article al-)?
▪ ʕNBR_2 ʕanbar ‘storehouse, warehouse, depot’: The Ar word is believed by some to be of Pers origin, a var. of ↗ʔanbār. Others, however, think the Pers word is borrowed from Ar. Meanwhile, Roland2014a reminds us of the possibility that ʕanbar also may have been the original word for the ‘sperm whale, cachalot’; if this is true then the meaning ‘storehouse’ may be the result of a semantic development from ‘cachalot’ > ‘skin of the cachalot, used as a shield; shield’ (see ʕNBR_4, below) > *protection > ‘hangar (protecting food, etc.), storehouse’.

▪ ʕNBR_3 : In some ClassAr texts, ʕanbar seems to have the meaning ‘saffron’ (Lane, Hava1899). Are we dealing with a homonym here, or is it just the result of a confusion and/or transfer of meaning from ‘ambergris’ (ʕNBR_1) to ‘saffron’ (perh. due to its smell)?
▪ ʕNBR_4 : The value ‘shield’ that ʕanbar can take in ClassAr is explained by the lexicographers as the result of a semantic development from ʕanbar as the term for the ‘spermaceti whale’ (»a certain great fish, the length of which reaches to fifty cubits, called in Pers pāleh [apparently a mistranscription for (Pers) vāl, see (Ar) bāl ]«), via the ‘shields [that] are made of its skin’, »and hence, a shield, made of the skin of the fish above mentioned, and some say, coats of defence« – Lane.
▪ ʕNBR_5 ^†ʕanbaraẗ ‘bitter cold of winter’ (Hava1899): seems to be a fig. use of ‘ambergris’, though the nature of the relation is not really clear. Is the tertium comparationis the idea of ‘essence’ or ‘purity’—ambergris being the ‘essence’ of a perfume, and the bitter cold the ‘essence’ of winter? Cf. also the next two items.
▪ ʕNBR_6 ^†ʕanbaraẗ ‘nobility of a tribe (Hava1899), purity of the pedigrees of a people (Lane)’: like ʕNBR_5.
▪ ʕNBR_7 ^†ʕanbarī ‘ʕAnbarite’, »belonging to the Banū ’l-ʕAnbar, or Balʕanbar, a tribe of Tamīm who were the most skilful people as guides, hence the proverbial saying, ʔanta ʕanbarī bi-hāḏā ’l-balad ‘thou art an Amberee in this country, or district’« (Lane): like in ‘bitter cold’ (ʕNBR_5) or ‘nobility of a tribe’ (ʕNBR_6), the basic idea here too may be *‘essence, purity’, a fig. use of ʕanbar in the (original?) sense of ‘ambergris’.

hist

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cogn

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disc

See above, section CONC.

west

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deriv

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