[am-ber] 
| 1. | a pale yellow, sometimes reddish or brownish, fossil resin of vegetable origin, translucent, brittle, and capable of gaining a negative electrical charge by friction and of being an excellent insulator: used for making jewelry and other ornamental articles. |
| 2. | the yellowish-brown color of resin. |
| 3. | of the color of amber; yellowish-brown: amber fields of grain. |
| 4. | made of amber: amber earrings. |
[am-ber] | a female given name. |
| am·ber (ām'bər) n.
[Middle English ambre, from Old French, from Medieval Latin ambra, ambar, from Arabic 'anbar, ambergris, amber.] |
amber (ām'bər) Pronunciation Key
(click for larger image in new window) A hard, translucent, brownish-yellow substance that is the fossilized resin of ancient trees. It often contains fossil insects. Our Living Language : Certain trees, especially conifers, produce a sticky substance called resin to protect themselves against insects. Normally, it decays in oxygen through the action of bacteria. However, if the resin happens to fall into wet mud or sand containing little oxygen, it can harden and eventually fossilize, becoming the yellowish, translucent substance known as amber. If any insects or other organisms are trapped in the resin before it hardens, they can be preserved, often in exquisite detail. By studying these preserved organisms, scientists are able learn key facts about life on Earth millions of years ago. |
Amber language
1. A functional programming language which adds CSP-like concurrency, multiple inheritance and persistence to ML and generalises its type system. It is similar to Galileo. Programs must be written in two type faces, roman and italics! It has both static types and dynamic types.
There is an implementation for Macintosh.
["Amber", L. Cardelli, TR Bell Labs, 1984].
2. An object-oriented distributed language based on a subset of C++, developed at Washington University in the late 1980s.
(1994-12-08)
Amber
(Ezek. 1:4, 27; 8:2. Heb., hashmal, rendered by the LXX. elektron, and by the Vulgate electrum), a metal compounded of silver and gold. Some translate the word by "polished brass," others "fine brass," as in Rev. 1:15; 2:18. It was probably the mixture now called electrum. The word has no connection, however, with what is now called amber, which is a gummy substance, reckoned as belonging to the mineral kingdom though of vegetable origin, a fossil resin.