Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Whatever the primary value may have been—[v1] or [v2]—, the word is of obscure etymology.
▪ Accord. to Lokotsch1927, ʕanbar ‘ambergris’ is a »sehr teure, dunkelgraue Masse, die in früheren Zeiten in der Medizin hochgeschätzt war, während sie heute fast nur noch zur Herstellung von Parfümen benutzt wird. In rundlichen oder kantigen Stücken auf dem Meere schwimmend oder am Strande angespült, wird die Ambra im Indischen Ozean gefunden und für feine Sorten je kg 5000 Mark und mehr gezahlt.«

hist

▪ …

cogn

▪ ?

disc

▪ »Nişanyan rapproche le mot du [mPers] ambar ‘id.’. Pour Desmaisons et Johnson, le [Pers] ʕambar est d’origine arabe. Vu le nombre de mots construits sur cette base consonantique aux sens très divers que l’on trouve aussi bien chez Kazimirski que chez Lane [cf. ↗ʕNBR], on a probablement affaire à des homonymes et à plusieurs origines linguistiques. Il ne faut pas exclure la possibilité que ʕanbar soit un vieux mot racine désignant le cachalot« – Rolland2014a.
▪ [v1] ‘ambergris’ is perh. a transfer of meaning from ʕanbar [v2] ‘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 (wiktionary/en.wikipedia). 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 dictionaries, ʕabīr is a mixture of perfumes, containing (among many other things) also saffron; in some places it is therefore even equated with ‘saffron’, as is also ʕanbar (see ʕNBR_3).
▪ Any connection betw. Ar ʕanbar ‘ambergris’ and Grk lamprós ‘bright, brilliant, radiant’ (with initial l- interpreted as article al-)?

west

▪ Tu amber ‘ambergris’: 1303 Codex Cumanicus : ladano = ʕanbar – Nişanyan10Apr2015.
▪ Ar ʕanbar ‘ambergris’ is also the source of corresponding words in many Eur langs—cf., e.g., Engl amber, mC14, ‘ambergris, perfume made from ambergris’, »from oFr ambre, from mLat ambar ‘ambergris’ (> It ambra, etc.), from Ar ʕanbar ‘id.’ – In Europe, the sense was extended, inexplicably, to fossil resins from the Baltic (lC13 in AngloLat; c. 1400 in Engl), 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 Engl eC15 from Fr, which distinguished the two substances as ambre gris and ambre jaune. The classical word for Baltic amber was electrum (cf. electric [cf. Ar ↗kahrabāʔ ])« – EtymOnline .

deriv

► ʕanbarī, adj., 1 perfumed with ambergris: nsb-adj. from ʕanbar in the sense of [v1] ‘ambergris’; 2 liqueur (also nabīḏ ʕanbarī): short for al-ʕaraq al-~ which, accord. to Dozy, is »la meilleure espèce de ʕaraq «; if from [v1] ‘ambergris’ then prob. in the latter’s fig. meaning of *‘essence’ (see ʕNBR_5-7 in entry ↗ʕNBR); 3 a variety of pigeon: etymology unclear.
► ʕanbaraẗ al-šitāʔ, n.f., the severity of winter, frost: belonging here, or to be kept apart from ‘ambergris’? Perh. the *‘essence’ of winter, cf. ʕanbarī [v2] above and ʕNBR_5-7 in entry ↗ʕNBR.

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