ambergris
pronunciation
How to pronounce ambergris in British English:
UK [ˈæmbəgri:s]
How to pronounce ambergris in American English:
US [ˈæmbəris]
-
- Noun:
- waxy substance secreted by the sperm whale and found floating at sea or washed ashore; used in perfume
Word Origin
- ambergris
- ambergris: [15] The original term for ambergris (a waxy material from the stomach of the sperm whale) was amber. But as confusion began to arise between the two substances amber and ambergris, amber came to be used for both in all the languages that had borrowed it from Arabic, thus compounding the bewilderment. The French solution was to differentiate ambergris as ambre gris, literally ‘grey amber’, and this eventually became the standard English term. (Later on, the contrastive term ambre jaune ‘yellow amber’ was coined for ‘amber’ in French.) Uncertainty over the identity of the second element, -gris, has led to some fanciful reformulations of the word.In the 17th century, many people thought ambergris came from Greece – hence spellings such as amber-degrece and amber-greece. And until comparatively recently its somewhat greasy consistency encouraged the spelling ambergrease.=> amber
- ambergris (n.)
- early 15c., from Middle French ambre gris "gray amber" (see amber), "a wax-like substance of ashy colour, found floating in tropical seas, a morbid secretion from the intestines of the sperm-whale. Used in perfumery, and formerly in cookery" [OED]. Its origin was a mystery in Johnson's day, and he records nine different theories. King Charles II's favorite dish was said to be eggs and ambergris [Macauley, "History of England"]. French gris is from Frankish *gris or some other Germanic source (cognates: Dutch grijs, Old High German gris; see gray (adj.)). Praise is like ambergris; a little whiff of it, by snatches, is very agreeable; but when a man holds a whole lump of it to his nose, it is a stink and strikes you down. [Pope, c. 1720]
Example
- 1. A cocktail of orange , roses , cinnamon , musk and ambergris , it is dispensed from a filigreed spoon filled from an eagle-shaped ampulla .
- 2. This is a collection of his own short stories , set in one of the strangest ( yet most beautiful ) fictional cities in fantasy , ambergris .