amber

Etymology

From Middle English ambre, aumbre, from Old French aumbre, ambre, from Arabic عَنْبَر (ʕanbar, “ambergris”), from Middle Persian 𐭠𐭭𐭡𐭫 (ʾnbl /⁠ambar⁠/, “ambergris”). Compare English lamber, ambergris. Displaced Middle English smulting (from Old English smelting (“amber”)), Old English eolhsand (“amber”), Old English glær (“amber”), and Old English sāp (“amber, resin, pomade”). * The nucleotide sequence "UAG" is named "amber" for the first person to isolate the amber mutation, California Institute of Technology graduate student Harris Bernstein, whose last name ("Bernstein") is the German word for the resin "amber".

noun

1. (obsolete) Ambergris, the waxy product of the sperm whale.
   Ambre is hote and drye […] Some say that it is the sparme of a whale. 1526, The Grete Herball
   As for Amber Grice, or Amber Cane, which ist most sweet myngled with other sweete thynges: some say it commeth from the rocks of the Sea. […] Some say it is gotten by a fish called Azelum, which feedeth upon Amber Grece, and dyeth, which is taken by cunnyng fishers and the belly opened, and this precious Amber found in hym. 1579, The Booke of Simples, fol. 56 (contained in Bulleins Bulwarke of Defence against all Sicknesse, Soarnesse, and Woundes)
   The head of this fish is as hard as stone. The inhabitants of the Ocean sea coast affirme that this fish casteth foorth Amber; but whether the said Amber be the sperma or the excrement thereof, they cannot well determine. 1600, John Pory (translator), A Geographical Historie of Africa (original by Leo Africanus), page 344
   Slaves […] with silver Censors […] perfum'd the air with Amber, Aloes wood, and other Scents. 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, letter, 18 Apr 1717
2. A hard, generally yellow to brown translucent or transparent fossil resin from extinct coniferous trees of the pine genus, used for jewellery, decoration and later dissolved as a binder in varnishes. One variety, blue amber, appears blue rather than yellow under direct sunlight.
   To shew this by example, we reade of Sabina Poppcea, to whom nothing was wanting, but shame and honestie, being extremely beloved of Nero, had the colour of her haire yellow, like Amber, which Nero esteemed much of, […] . 1637, Monro, his expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment (called Mac-Keys Regiment), republished in 1999 →ISBN, page 102
   Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […]. (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.) 2012-03, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 2012-06-14, page 128
3. A yellow-orange colour.
   amber:
4. (Britain) The intermediate light in a set of three traffic lights, which when illuminated indicates that drivers should stop short of the intersection when safe to do so.
   While earlier controllers provided concurrent ambers, present practice is to indicate a minimum intergreen period of 4 s. 1974, Traffic Planning and Engineering, page 366
   Also flashing ambers are not operational at this type of crossing. 2000, Traffic Engineering & Control, volume 41, page 201
   >Problem: Red-red signals are too time consuming when traffic density is higher. I don't find them time consuming at all. I find them identical to ambers. January 14 2004, AZGuy, “Turn Signal Research shows amber no more effective then red”, in rec.autos.driving (Usenet)
5. (biology, genetics, biochemistry) The stop codon (nucleotide triplet) "UAG", or a mutant which has this stop codon at a premature place in its DNA sequence.
   an amber codon, an amber mutation, an amber suppressor
   For example, to cross a temperature-sensitive mutation with an amber mutation, amber suppressor cells are infected at the low (permissive) temperature. 2007, Molecular Genetics of Bacteria, edition 3, page 333
   Double ambers revert at 10⁻⁸-10⁻⁹, and therefore, reversion is negligible. Double-amber mutants are made by crossing single-amber mutants with each other. 2007, Jonathan C. Kuhn, “Detection of Salmonella by Bacteriophage Felix 01”, in Salmonella: Methods and Protocols, pages 27–28
6. (uncountable) Hesitance to proceed, or limited approval to proceed; an amber light.
   […] in response to the actions I just described, business was given the green light, and now we seem to be on amber. 1973, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Banking, Currency, and Housing, Hearings, Reports and Prints of the House Committee..., page 53

adj

1. Of a brownish yellow colour, like that of most amber.
   They all moved safely through the first green and then the second, but when the third light turned amber Jack's taxi was the last to cross the intersection. 2006, Jeffrey Archer, False Impression, page 270
   Ahead, a cool breeze swept the pale morning sun across a grassy meadow turned amber by morning's frost. 2008, Elizabeth Amber, Raine: The Lords of Satyr, page 211

verb

1. (transitive, rare) To perfume or flavour with ambergris.
   ambered wine, an ambered room
2. (transitive, rare) To preserve in amber.
   an ambered fly
3. (transitive, rare, chiefly poetic or literary) To cause to take on the yellow colour of amber.
   For purple mountains majesty; for amber waves of grain. 1885, America the Beautiful
   Home to the mosaic of coloured-lit windows in the black and white houses, the fake gas lamps ambering the cobbles, sometimes the scent of applewood smoke. 2007, Phil Rickman, Fabric of Sin: A Merrily Watkins Mystery
   The firelight flickered on her rounded cheeks, ambering the pale skin. 2008, Jeri Westerson, Veil of Lies: A Medieval Noir
4. (intransitive, rare, chiefly poetic or literary) To take on the yellow colour of amber.
   Westward along Lancaster Avenue, among the stone walls and broad driveways of imposing old houses—their lawns dappled with the shade of ambering maples and dusty, bark-peeled sycamores 2009, Jack Wennerstrom, Black Coffee, page 19
   [T]hough many of the pirates protested against these energetic activities[,] he was only pleasantly tired when the lowering, ambering sun began to bounce needles of gold glare off the waves ahead; 2011, Tim Powers, On Stranger Tides