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Sambuca
Definitions
- 1 An Italian liqueur made from elderberries and flavoured with licorice, traditionally served with 3 coffee beans that represent health, wealth and fortune (or past, present and future). uncountable, usually
- 2 An ancient form of triangular harp having a very sharp, shrill tone. historical
"Cymbals, trumpets and organs (familiar Old Testament vocabulary) appear conventionally enough as cymballe, trwmpedau and organau, but the more obscure psaltria, trigona, and sambucae (psalteries, trigons and sambucae: three types of Greek harp) become psalteris, kornets, shalmes, [a] dulcimus in translation (Chapter Six, paragraph 7); cornets and shawns are, of course, wind instruments."
- 3 an Italian liqueur made with elderberries and flavored with licorice wordnet
- 4 An ancient type of ship-borne siege engine. historical
"Marcellus had prepared, at great expense, machines called ſambucae, from their reſemblance to a muſical inſtrument of that name.[…]“Shall we perſiſt,” ſaid he to his workmen and engineers, “in making war with this Briareus of a geometrician, who treats my gallies and ſambucae ſo rudely? He infinitely exceeds the fabled giants with their hundred hands, in his perpetual and ſurpriſing diſcharges upon us.”"
Etymology
] Borrowed from Italian sambuca, from Latin sambūcus (“elder tree”), due to a similar 19th century liquor flavored with elderflower. Modern sambuca, which doesn't necessarily have elderberry, started being marketed in 1971.
From Latin sambūca, from Ancient Greek σαμβύκη (sambúkē), ultimately from Aramaic סַבְּכָא (sabbəḵā).
See also for "sambuca"
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Unscramble this word: sambuca