A hard, yellowish-brown substance made from fossilized tree resin, often used in jewelry. As an adjective, it refers to this warm yellow-orange color, like traffic lights between red and green.
From Middle English *ambre*, via Old French, from Medieval Latin *ambra*. It originally referred to both fossil resin and a waxy substance from sperm whales (ambergris) before the meanings split.
Amber can trap insects for millions of years, turning them into tiny time capsules. The same substance that once oozed from trees now powers science fiction ideas about cloning dinosaurs. Even traffic lights borrow its glow to mean “pause and think.”
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