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amber
ambergris (W3)
Das engl. "amber" und "ambergris" gehen beide zurück auf arab. "anbar".
(E?)(L?) http://www.netstrider.com/documents/ambergris/
(E?)(L?) http://www.netstrider.com/documents/ambergris/scope/index.html
This annotated bibliography and information pathfinder will focus on the subject of ambergris, the fragrant raw material for perfumery produced in the gut of the sperm whale, Physeter catodon L., and found cast up on tropical and subtropical seashores. The bibliography will cover the etymology of the modern term, the history of the discovery of its true origin, commercial uses and value, economics and place in art, music, folklore, religion and literature. The bibliography will also cover the science of its chemical, physical and organoleptic properties and equivalent modern synthetic substitutes. Materials reviewed are limited to those available in the Walter Clinton Jackson Library at UNCG (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro).
(E?)(L?) http://www.netstrider.com/documents/ambergris/summary/index.html
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Ambergris was known to the Arabs as "'anbar" and was originally called "amber" in the West It was used by the Arabs as medicine for the heart and brain. The Arabs believed that raw ambergris emanated from springs near the sea. In the Thousand and One Nights, Sinbad is shipwrecked on a desert island and discovers a spring of stinking crude "ambergris" which flows like wax into the sea where it is swallowed by giant fishes and vomited up again as fragrant lumps to be cast up on the shore.
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In the West, true "amber" ("yellow amber" or "Prussian amber", the "succinum" of the Romans and the ["elektron"] of the Greeks) and "ambergris" were thought to have the same or similar origins, probably because both were fragrant, rare, costly, somewhat similar in appearance and found cast up on seashores. To the earliest Western chroniclers, "ambergris" was variously thought to come from the same bituminous sea founts as "amber", from the sperm of fishes or whales, from the droppings of strange sea birds (probably because of confusion over the included beaks of squid) or from the large hives of bees living near the sea. Marco Polo was the first Western chronicler who correctly attributed "ambergris" to sperm whales which he saw hunted on the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean but which he also thought vomited it up after having eaten it in the depths of the sea.
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(E?)(L?) http://www.netstrider.com/documents/ambergris/dictionaries/index.html
Originally from the French "ambre" ("amber") possibly initially derived from the Arabic "'anbar" ("ambergris"). The original meaning of the word "amber" was "ambergris". The modern word is derived from the French "ambre gris" ("gray amber", "ambergris") in distinction to "ambre jaune" ("Prussian amber", "yellow amber" or "true amber"). The English and French confusion over the terms may have arisen early since both raw substances are relatively similar in appearance, with the exception of color, are rare, are costly and are found on or along seacoasts.
Reported variants are:
"ambar" | "ambergrease" | "ambergriese" | "ambregris" | "ambargrece" | "ambergrece" | "ambergrise" | "grease of amber" | "ambargris" | "ambergreece" | "ambra" | "gris-amber" | "amber" | "ambergreese" | "ambragresia" | "imbergres"
Also related are:
Amber | Amber Pear | Amber Tree | Amber-Fish | Amberjack | Ambra | Ambracan | Ambreic | Ambrette