--- tgpedersen <
tgpedersen@...> wrote:
> from Endre Bojtár:
> Foreword to the Past,
> A Cultural History of the Baltic People. p. 31-33
. . .
> Oh, so it really meant "resin"? Then perhaps this is
> relevant:
>
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/51978
>
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/51970
> Let's propose *gWentá-/gWantá(-r)- "resin". The poor
> Aestian probably
> said that this was gelled resin, but that the
> Aestian's didn't know
> from where it was washed onto their shore. That
> earned him a
>
=== message truncated ===
fascinating account but
What are the Estonian, Finnish and Saami forms?
Given that amber supposedly shows up in the North Sea
--are there any interesting Celtic words for amber?
What are the Scandinavian words for amber? --Surely
the Scandinavians and Baltic Germans would have been
in contact with amber before receiving the Arabo-Latin
form.
The origin is explained thus in Wikipedia:
The English word amber stems from the old Arabic word
anbargris or ambergris and refers to an oily, perfumed
substance secreted by the sperm whale. Middle English
ambre > Old French ambre > Medieval Latin ambra (or
ambar). It floats on water and is washed up on the
beaches. Due to a confusion of terms (see: Abu Zaid al
Hassan from Siraf & Sulaiman the Merchant (851),
Silsilat-al-Tawarikh (travels in Asia), it became to
be the name for fossil resin or tree sap, which is
also found on beaches.
. . ..
The Greek name for amber was
ηλεκτρον
(Electron) and was connected to the Sun God, one of
whose titles was Elector or the Awakener.[1] . . .
Heating amber will soften it and eventually it will
burn, which is why in Germanic languages the word for
amber is a literal translation of burn-Stone (In
German it is Bernstein, in Dutch it is barnsteen
etc.). . . .
. . .
Baltic amber has a very wide distribution, extending
over a large part of northern Europe and occurring as
far east as the Urals.
. . .
Although amber is found along the shores of a large
part of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, the great
amber-producing country is the promontory of Sambia,
now part of Russia. About 90% of the world's
extractable amber is located in the Kaliningrad region
of Russia on the Baltic Sea.[12]