ember

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛm.bə/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛm.bɚ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛmbə(ɹ)

From Middle English embre, eymbre, aymer, eymere, emeri, from Old English ǣmyrġe, from Proto-West Germanic *aimuʀjā, from Proto-Germanic *aimuzjǭ, a compound of *aimaz +‎ *uzjǭ. The latter is from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ews- (“to burn”). The b is intrusive and was added in English for ease of pronunciation when the vowel of the second syllable (y) disappeared.

See also Old High German eimuria (“pyre”), Danish emmer, Swedish mörja (“embers”).

ember (plural embers)

1. A piece of coal or wood glowing by heat; a hot coal.
2. Smoldering ash.

• embers

From Middle English embryne (“running around, circuit”), from Old English ymbryne (“course; circuit”), equivalent to umb- +‎ run.

ember (not comparable)

1. (religion) Making a circuit of the year or the seasons; recurring in each quarter of the year, as certain religious days set apart for fasting and prayer.

   ember fasts

   ember days

   ember weeks

• ember months

• “ember”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• EBMer, berme, breme

• (southern dialects) embör, (northern dialects) ämber
• (dialectal, archaic) emberfia, (alternative spelling) ember fia, (southern dialects, archaic) embörfia

Probably a compound word. The first element is related to the base word of emse (“sow”) (originally meant “female”), which in turn is from Proto-Uralic *emä (“mother, woman”).[1][2] The second element is either a variant of férj (“husband”) which originally meant “man” or is related to an unattested stem -ër, -ér, -ar, but in any case, the stem ultimately derives from Proto-Finno-Ugric *irkä (“man, son, boy”).[3][4]

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛmbɛr]

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: em‧ber
• Rhymes: -ɛr

ember (plural emberek)

1. person

   Synonyms: személy, fő

2. (biology) human (a human being, whether man, woman or child)

   Synonym: emberi lény

3. construed with az: mankind, humanity, man (all humans collectively)

   Synonym: emberiség

4. (archaic) man (adult male human; today mostly in compounds like fiatalember, öregember, vénember)

   Synonym: férfi

   Coordinate term: asszony (originally: “any woman”; today: “married woman”)

• For its use with the article az (“the”), see az ember (“one, you”, used like an indefinite, generic pronoun).
• The word ember is gender-neutral in the biological sense, or in the plural where it can refer to a mixed group of men and women or to people in general, and also in expressions like embere válogatja (“it depends on the person”), where it is again used in a general sense. In contrast with this, when it is used in the singular to refer to one person in particular, there is a strong implication that one is probably talking about a man and not a woman, in which case egy nő (“a woman”) would sound more natural. As a generic pronoun, it has no such connotations, but even so, women sometimes colloquially use the expression az ember lánya (literally “the daughter of man”) instead, especially when talking about topics that only pertain to women in general.

• ember in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
• ember in Ittzés, Nóra (ed.). A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (‘A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published A–ez as of 2024)

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛm.bɛr]

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: èm‧bèr

From Dutch emmer.

ember (plural ember-ember, first-person possessive emberku, second-person possessive embermu, third-person possessive embernya)

1. bucket

   Synonyms: baldi, timba

2. (slang) someone who spread other people's disgrace; gossiper

• → Petjo: ember
• → Ternate: ember

Modifed from emang.

ember

1. (gay slang) indeed

• “ember” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

ember

1. Romanization of ꦲꦺꦩ꧀ꦧꦺꦂ

From Old Norse eimr (“reek”), from Proto-Germanic *aimaz (“steam”).

ember m

1. reek, vapor

Borrowed from Indonesian ember, from Dutch emmer, from Middle Dutch ember, from Old Dutch ēmer, from Proto-West Germanic *ambrī.

• IPA^(key): [ˈembeɾ]

ember

1. bucket

• Rika Hayami-Allen (2001) A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh, page 29