ember

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“
Egy szegeny Magyar Nemes ember, a poor Hungarian nobleman, son of one yet poorer.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A small, glowing piece of coal or wood, as in a dying fire.
  2. noun The smoldering coal or ash of a dying fire.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • "It's darker than steam And I just saw a burning ember, apparently a leaf, in the smoke!" —  002 - The Land of Terror
  • He saw another glowing ember, and lifted a handful of the wet leaves and quenched it. —  Robin Hobb
  • My heart died with Theriel, and the remaining ember is all that I have left. —  Rachel Lee - Shadows of Destiny
  • He tried to guess which ember was the remnants of the stick of incense he and Sayo had lit together a few hours ago, when they had first arrived at the holy shrine. —  UglyAmericans
  • For a moment I felt dizzy watching the glowing ember, then the feeling passed. —  F ;SF; - vol 096 issue 04 - April 1999
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English embre, from Old English ǣmerge.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also imber, imbre, ymber; from Middle English eymbre, eymery, usually in plural emmeres, emeres, northern ammeris, ameris (modern Scots emmers, aumers), from Anglo-Saxon ǣmergean (Leechd, iii. 30, 18), ǣmyrian (Benson), plural, = Middle Low German āmere, ēmere, āmer, Low German emern, aumern = Old High German eimurja, Middle High German eimere, eimer, German dial. (Bavarian) aimern, emmern = Icelandic eimyrja = Norwegian eimyrja, aamyrja (also, by popular etymology, eldmyrja, as if from eld = Icelandic eldr, fire (see elding), + myrja, embers; but Norwegian (eastern dial.) myrja = Swedish mörja, embers, is itself an abbreviation of eimyrja) = Danish emmer, plural, embers. The ult. origin is unknown.
  2. In modern English and Middle English only in comp.; from Middle English embyr-, ymber-, umbri-, (see ember-days, ember-week), from Anglo-Saxon ymbren-, in comp. ymbren-dæg, ember-day, ymbren-wice, ember-week, ymbren-fæsten, ember-fast; also abbreviation ymbren, dative plural ymbrenum, ember-days; from embryne, embrin, ymbren, ymbrene, ymbryne, a circuit, course (geāres ymbryne, the year's course; Lenctenes ymbren, the vernal equinox, literally the return of spring); from ymb, ymbe, embe, around (= Old High German umbi-, German um-, Latin ambi-, Greek ἀμφι-, around:see ambi-, amphi-, um-), + ryne, a running, a course, from rinnan, run. The Icelandic imbru-dagar, Old Swedish ymberdagar, Norwegian imbredagar, ember-days, Icelandic imbru-nātt, ember-night, Icelandic imbruvika, Norwegian imbrevika, ember-week, are in the first element from the English; while the equivalent Swedish tamper-dagar, Danish tamper-dage, also kvatember, Dutch quatertemper, quatemper, Low German tamper, quatertamper, German quatember, formerly kottember, kotemer, etc., are corruptions of the Middle Latin quatuor tempora, the four seasons, applied to the ember-days.
 

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/ˈɛmbər/
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