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ETYMOLOGY:  Amber, the English designation for the fossil resin used as a gemrock, is noted in most English-language dictionaries to have the following general etymology:  Middle English ambre >  Old French ambre > Medieval Latin ambra (or ambar), from the Arabic 'anbar, which originally referred to ambergris and only later also to amber.   Despite this indication of consensus, it seems only prudent  to mention the fact that alternative etymologies have been published. Two examples are:  Munro (1981) summarizes information supporting the Persian designation kahrobâ as the root;   [and]   Eugenion Ragazzi (2000) writes:  " 'amber' is believed to derive from the Arabic word 'Haur Rumi' that means 'Roman poplar tree':  the following corrupted terms were Haurum, Habrum, Hambrum and finally Ambarum and Amber.  This origin is not surprising, since in the mythology, after the death of Phaeton on the river Eridano, his sisters, the Eliades, were transformed into poplars, and they weeped tears of amber!!"   In addition, attention is directed to the historical review about amber, as recorded in translated ancient documents, that is on the web site  www.ambermines.co.uk/Ancient_writers.php;   several of the included statements -- especially those from Pliny the Elder's work Naturalis historia -- may also pertain to the origin of the term amber as applied to the fossil resin.

AMBER in SEVERAL LANGUAGES:  Names applied to amber are listed alphabetically, by language, in the fourth paragraph under this subheading.  Names based on or referring only to succinite, and some of the additional  terms given in glossaries (e.g., Bayliss, 2000 & Fourestier,1999) and on internet web sites (e.g., www.ambericawest.com) are not included in that paragraph or on Tables 1 and 2.   Remarks about several additional terms are, however, treated in the "Post Script- ..." that follows the tables.

Transliterations and native scripts are given for the amber equivalent(s) for most of the listed languages for which non-Roman scripts are currently the so-to-speak norm; others, the uses of which are documented, will be added as they are found or sent to me [along this line, attention is directed to the compilation of alphabets of virtually all of these, as well as several other, languages given on  www.omniglot.com/writing/atoz].  It also seems prudent to mention my inability to find any designations for amber in some languages that probably have it as a part of their vocabulary.  On the other hand, the words proposed for amber in Esperanto and Interlingua, the most widely  recognized artificial international languages, were found and are included.

Please keep the preceding explanations and disclaimers in mind while going through the following designations:   Afrikaans - barnsteen; Albanian - qehribá ;   Arabic - kahramaan ( )  &   'anbar (  ) ;   Armenian - ?sat' (  [ + h'ambar?];   Azeri(Azerbaijani)-  or   kæhræba;    Basque - anbar;   Belarus(i)an - ~ burshtin (  );   Bengali -  ??? ( );   Bosnian - see Serbo-Croat;   Breton - goularz;   Bulgarian - kehlibar (  );   Burmese - payin (  ); Cambodian - ??? (  );   Catalan - see French & Spanish;   Chinese - hŭpò; (  );   Croatian - see Serbo-Croat;   Czech - jantar;   Danish - rav;   Dutch - barnsteen [ + amber] ;   English - amber  & ambre;  also, the Oxford English Dictionary (1971) has three entries, hereafter underlined, that include words that have been used for amber:  Amber - - ambra, aumber, aumbur, ambyr,... awmer & awmbur;  Karabe;   [and]  Lamber  (noted as "Obs[olete]. Chiefly north[ern]. dia[lect.]") - - lambre, laumb(e)re, lambur, lawmer, lammer, lamar, lamer & lamour.  [Two additional things seem noteworthy:  1. glær is said to be the Old English word meaning amber as well as being the root-word for glass and glaze (www.ceramicstoday.com);  see, however, statements about this under glass in the Oxford English Dictionary (1971);  [and]  2. the Anglo-Saxon word ómber does not refer to amber (it is the word for a certain dry measure).];   Esperanto - ambro ;   Estonian - merevaik ;   Farsi -  kahrobâ (   );   Filipino - see Tagalog;   Finnish - meripihka ;   French - ambre  [ + karabé];;   Gaelic - see Irish, Manx  & Scottish(Gaelic);   Georgian(Mkhedruli) - karva/qarva (  );   German - Bernstein, Agtstein & Luchstein (Old German - cf. Latin, lyncurium) [ + Brennstein?];   Greek - kechrimpari ( ), ilektron / êlektron (  )  &  pterygophoron( ) [ i.e., "feather-attractor" - used in the 1st century A.D. by Dioscuridis, in allusion to amber's electrostatic character];   Gujarati - kerabo (  )  &  triNamaNi / truNamaNi (  );  Hawaiian - ? amepela, ? amebera ;  Hebrew - i'nbar (  ) [The designation hashmal (or chasmal) has been interpreted, apparently incorrectly, by some scholars to have meant amber in "Old Hebrew."];   Hindi - ambara ( ) [var. - aMbara (  )],  kaharuvA (  )  &  tR^iNamaNi( );   Hungarian - borostyánkő & gyantar;  Icelandic - raf  &  gleri;   Indian - see Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil & Urdu;  Indonesia - batu ambar [batu ≃ stone];   Interlingua - ambra;  Irish(Gaelic) - ómra ;  Italian - ambra [ + karabé] ;   Japanese - kohaku [Kanji] (  ),  [Hiragana] ( )  &  [Katakana] (   );  Korean - ho-pak (  );  Kannada -  shilaaraaLa, ambaru, hAlumaDDi ( ??? );  Kurdish - kareba  ( in Kurdish-Arabic script  -  ;   Latin -  ambra [Medieval Latin]; electrum [cf .Greek êlektron / ilektron]; glaesum /glesum [Roman Latin];  lacrima Heliandum [see Heliades tears under REMARKS subheading]; lyncurium / ?langurium? [see Demonstratus' solidified lynx urine under REMARKS subheading];  Latvian - dzintars ;   Lithuanian - gintaras ;  Macedonian - kilibar ( );  Malayalam ? kunthirukkam / chenjalyam [may refer to non-fossilized resin];  Maori kano pàkà [ possibly refers to color];   Manx (Gaelic - i.e., Goidelic) - ombyr ;   Mongolian - khüw (  ) -- [Use of cyrillic script is post-Russian takeover of the region.];   Myanmar(ese) - see Burmese;   Norwegian - rav ;   Persian - karabe (see Farsi);   Philippines language - see Tagalog;   Phoenician - yainitar;   Polish - jantar  &  bursztyn ;   Portuguese - âmbar  [ + karabé];   Prussian(i.e., Old Prussian) - glêsîs [used in historic Baltic - i.e., Soudinoi / Sudovian / Jatvingian / Yotvingians / Yatvingians documents (Ptolemy, 2nd century A.D.); cf. Latin(Roman Latin)];  Romanian - chihlimbar  [ + ambra];  Russian(Mokshan) - yantarj ( );   Sanskrit - a.ngArakamaNi  ( [=gem of pearl, coral, ... or amber ])  &  shUkApuTTa(   [=a gem, perhaps amber]);  Scottish(Current+) - amber, ambir  & ambre;  (Gaelic) òmar [ + lammer ]; Serbo-Croat - cilibar(ski) (  ) [ + jantar  (  )];   Slavic - ambra ( );   Slovak - jantár ;  Somali(Cushitic) -  ámbar;   Spanish - ámbar [ + cárabe] ;  Swahili(Bantu / Kiswahili) kaharabu;  Swedish - bärnsten ;  Syrian - kahraba;  Tagalog (Filipino/Pilipino) - dagtâ [= resin, sap];  Tamil(Dravidian) - ampar;  Thai - ching peh (  )  &???  ( );   Tibetan - ka su ra (  )  & spös shel (  );  Transylvanian - ambrã ;  Turkish - kehribar (   );   Ukrainian - burshtyn (  ) [ + Russian - yantar (  )] ;   Urdu - ambar (   );    Vietnamese - hổ phách (I have been told early missionaries got many Vietnamese to use Roman letters to represent their oral language, which is closely related to Chinese and formerly was expressed with Chinese-like script - cf. transliteration of Chinese);   Welsh - gwefr, amfer  &  ambr ;  Yiddish - burschtin [ + ?agdsten - see Post Script ...];   Zanzibar(ese) - see Swahili.   

TABULATIONS:  Apparent and possible relationships among several of the preceding designations follow.

Table 1. Four common designations applied to amber, the fossil resin.  Languages listed under the four designations, given as the boldface column headings, currently use or have used terms that are identical to the heading word, cognates of that word, or words with apparently the same or similar connotation of their root-word.  Comments about the probable root-word of each group are given as footnotes in the appropriate columns.  Languages in which two or more designations for amber have found noteworthy use are listed in more than one group.

Table 2. Languages with designations for amber the bases of which differ from those given in Table 1.  Notes about probable and possible origins of a few of these designations are given as footnotes.  As more information is found, some of these terms may be found to belong in one of the groups given on Table 1;  if so, they will be deleted from this table and added to the appropriate column in Table 1.

Anyone who sees corrections or additions they think should be made to the preceding non-English designations for amber (the noun for fossil resin), PLEASE send them, along with documentation, to me. 

The following terms -- except for those recorded as CHINESE ... , which are listed last -- are given in alphabetical order.

• AGDSTEN - Recorded as a Yiddish word for amber on some “bare-bone” wordlists on the internet (e.g.,  www.carecure.net):  To date, I have found no example of or documentation for direct application of this term to any given amber.  See next (agstein) listing.
• AGSTEIN - Problematic, as follows:  1. In some editions of Dana's System (e.g., Dana,1892*), agstein is given (along with bernstein) as  a synonym of succinite.   2. On some wordlists, agstein is said to apply to “star and clouded” agate and to amber.  3. In a number of professional publications and dictionaries (e.g., Shipley’s “Dictionary of Gems and Gemology”), agstein is applied to jet. [and]    4. Agtstein is a German word, albeit not the common one, used for amber - see De Vries widely used “German-English Science Dictionary.” The preceding data, along with thoughts about the close spatial relationship of some amber and some jet, led to my questioning and rather intensive search - thus far in vain - for direct application of the recorded Yiddish use of the word agdsten for amber.  Questions remain.
• AIDSTEIN - Not applicable:  It refers, instead, to obsidian or pechkohle (i.e., pitch or bituminous coal).
• ALAMBAR - In Spanish, for example, this term refers to liquid resin  - sometimes called liquid amber - exuded by trees:  It does not refer to fossil resins, such as amber, formed from those resins.
• ALEXJEJEVITE (alekseevit,  alekszejevit,  alexjejewit, etc.) - Not amber:  This is a Russian word for tar.
• AMBROSINE - An amber-like material "found in phosphatic beds near Charleston, S.C. [South Carolina, U.S.A.] ... It has been suggested that this may be only a modern resin which has been subjected to the action of salt water" (Dana, 1892*, p.1008).  Also noteworthy here, the term AMBROSIA has been reported – apparently incorrectly - as a present-day Greek term for amber ( www.ambericawest.com ).
• BERENIKIS - Recorded as Greek word for amber ( www.amberjewelry.com ), but elsewhere said to be only "a historic reference to a blonde-haired queen Berenice ..." ( www.ambericawest.com ).
• BUCAMARANGITE (Resine de Bucamaranga) - A retinite?
• CHRYSELECTRUM (krizelektrum) - This term, appears as Eriselectrus/Criselectrus in the Latin translation of  the Aberdeen [Scotland] Bestiary [MS 24, Aberdeen University Library], which is thought to have used as its source “Physiologus," originally written in Greek and thought to date from 4th century Alexandria, but also believed to include later - pre-13th century - additions:  In this volume, chryselectrum  is not  equated with amber;  instead, it is described as having the color of gold and amber (i.e., of “auri et electri”).    It seems noteworthy, however, that  Pliny, the Elder (pre-79 A.D....xxxvii, 51)mentions Callistratus'application of this term to "gold amber" [the description of which seems not to fit what is now called amber].  Also, Fourestier (op cit.) indicates that this term has been applied to chrysoberyl and pyrite as well as apparently to amber by Pliny the Elder, and at least some Chinese consider chryselectrum to refer to chrysoberyl (www.jewellery.net.tw). 
• GRABSTEIN - Not amber:  This is the German word for grave stone or tomb stone.
• HARPAKS -  Listing of this word as the ancient Syrian word for amber appears to be based on a statement in Pliny, the Elder (pre-79 A.D....xxxvii, 37), which has been translated in different ways;  harpax refers either to amber  or   to the spindles(whorls) made from amber -- The pertinent Latin text follows:  "in Syria quoque feminas verticillos inde facere et vocare harpaga, quia ..." 
• HARTITE (hartin, hartital, hartitine) - Not amber:  It occurs "among the layers or tissues of the wood, and also in clefts in the coal or lignite"  in, for example, brown coal beds near Gloggnitz, Austria (Dana, 1892*, p.1001;  Norbert,  2003).
• HIRZIN (hirzite, hirzita) - I suspect this is an alternative spelling for Hircite, which as described (Dana, 1892*, p.1014) seems more closely related to resin (per se) than any so-called fossil resin (including copal):  If the preceding assumption is correct, not amber. [The name, by the way, is said to be based on the odor emitted when it burns -- i.e., "a peculiarly strong animal odor (whence the name), from hircus a goat." (Dana ibid.)]
• HOFMANNITE (hofmanita) - Not amber:   Named after A.W. Hofmann of Berlin, this material is described as a Carbon-Hydrogen-Oxygen material forming "a white crystalline efflorescence on Lignite in the neighborhood of Siena [Italy, I presume]" ( Dana,1892*, p.1013; Norbert, 2003).
• IXOLITH (ixolyte) - Not amber:   Associated with hartite in a coal bed near Gloggnitz, Austria (Dana,1892*, p.1001;  Norbert, 2003).  [Not to be confused with the "redefined or renamed"  mineral Ixiolite - (Ta,Mn,Nb)O₂].
• JAULINGITE - Not amber:  Red material that resembles amber from Jauling, St Veit an der Triesting, Bad Vööslau, Lower Austria, Austria (Dana, 1892*, p. 1006;  Norbert, 2003).
• JELINITE - A rare amber, named for George Jelinek, a collector:  Found in Ellsworth County in central Kansas, it was originally called kansasite (Buddhue, 1938).
• KAH RUBA - Apparently not an Indian (i.e., Asian Indian) word for amber.  It is close to the Arabic word Kahroba, which means raw rubber (e.g., www.ambericawest.com).
• KOCHENITE - Described as a variety of amber: Type locality, Kochen valley, Telfs, Inn valley, North Tyrol, Tyrol, Austria - reference cited (not seen by me) - A. Pichler: Jahrb. k. k. geol. Reichsanstalt (1868) - (www.mindat.org).
• KÖFLACHIT - A resin (retinite?):  Type locality, Laukowitz, near Köflach in Styria [i.e., Steiermark, Austria] (Dana, 1892*, p.1007).
• LEGUMOCOPALITE (legumokopalit) -  Not amber:  It is copal.
• LEUCOPETRIN (leukopetrin, leukopetrit, leucopetrite) - Not amber:  Type locality, Gesterwitz, Weissenfels, Germany, which accounts for the name;  specimen located in the Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia "does not look like resin or amber ... It is dark brown and fine-grained, resembling an earthy brown coal" (William Birch, personal communication, 11/17/2004);  see also Dana,1892*, p.1011.  
• MEER -  Not amber:  I suspect this term has been listed for amber because of less than good translation(s) about amber found in a lakes or loughs in western Europe (e.g., in Belgium or the Netherlands); Meer is the Dutch word for lake or lough.
• MUNKTENITE - Said to be a variety of  Romanian amber, with no additional information or reference given - (Strunz, 1970):  Possibly a misspelling of the succeeding term.
• MUTENITE (mutinia) - A variety of Romanian amber: Type locality is Olanesti, Valcea Co., Romania (no reference is cited, see www.mindat.org) [Not to be confused with the zeolite mineral mutinaite.]
• MYRRHITA - If used for amber, possibly based on its use in combination with myrrh as an incense.
• NEUDORFITE - Local name for amber that was found to occur in a coal bed a Neudorf, Moravia [now part of Czech Republic] (Dana, 1892*, p.1006;  Jehlicka, Villar and Edwards, 2003)
• *NIKA   PA - Noted as African (Ashanti tribe) - thus, Ghana?!?:  No further information given (www.ambericawest.com) -- being researched.
• OROCHE - Synonym of electrum (www.mindat.org):  Considering the "oro" portion of the term and the noted synonymy with electrum, it seems likely that this term refers to the natural gold-silver combination, widely called electrum rather than to amber.
• PHYTOCOLLIT(E)(fitocolite - Portuguese) - Not amber:  Equated with dop(p)lerite, which is defined as "gelatinous [material] made up of carbon, amorphous, dark chestnut, derivative of the acid húmico" (Google translation of Portuguese Glossário Geológico on the internet -- www.dct.fct.unl.pt/GGeo/GGabc.html;  Dana, 1892*, p.1014-1015).
• PRÍLEPITE - Local name for amber from unidentified locality, apparently in the Czech Republic (Jehlicka, Villar and Edwards, 2003).
• PSATHYRIN (psathyrit, psatrit) - Not amber:  Considered  another name for Xylorentinitea (q.v)  --  see Dana (1892*, p.1009).
• *RAV - This designation, used by the Norwegians and Danes for amber, is recorded in a few places (e.g., www.ambericawest.com) as also the Indian (i.e., Asian Indian) word for amber -- being researched.
• ROCHLEDERITE - Not amber:  It is described as the part of melanchyme that is soluble in alcohol.  Melanchym(e) is "a bituminous substance found in masses in the brown coal of Zweifelsruth, Bohemia, former Czechoslovakia"  (Dana, 1892*, p.1014).
• ROSTHORNITE - A retinite:  It also is described as "An ill-defined resin, resembling amber and jaulingite" (www.mindat.org).  Type locality, Sonnberg, Guttaring, Friesach - Hüttenberg area, Carinthia, Austria (Dana, 1892*, p.1007).
• SACAL - Probably ambergris:  According to Pliny, the Elder (pre-79 A.D. ... xxxvii, 36), Nicias, along with hypotheses about its origin, noted that amber is called sacal in Egypt  -- "in Aegypto nasei simili modo -- vocari sacal."  Considering the time and some of the associated statements, it seems likely the alluded-to material was ambergris.
• SCHACHAL - Possibly a German cognate for the preceding term, sacal. 
• SCHLANITE (schlanita) -   Not amber:  It is described as "The soluble part [of anthracoxene] ... a dark or light brown powder" (Dana, 1892*, p.1012). 
• SCHWARZHARZ - Apparently a black amber-like material, sometimes called stantienite.
• SIEGBERGITE (siebergite) - Apparently not amber:  "A resin from the brown-coal formation ... [near] Siegburg in the region of the Lower Rhine.  Occurs in concretionary masses in which the resin is mixed with some 50 p.c. [i.e., per cent] or more of quartz sand, which ... it cements together." (Dana, 1892*, p.1005).
• TASMANITE - Not amber:  It is described as a resiniferous shale (Dana, 1892*, p.1010), a light brown spore-rich cannel coal (www.turnstone.ca), and  a brown to black oil shale from oil-shale deposits in Tasmania (Dyni, 2003).
• TRINKERIT - An "ill-defined [reddish brown] resin":  From Gams,  Styria [i.e., Steiermark, Austria], it was named for a Tyrolean mine captain, Josef Trinker (1815-1873) (www.emporia.edu/earthsci/amber/ksamber;  Dana, 1892*, p.1010).
• VALCHOVITE (walchowite) - Local name for amber found in coal from Walchow, Moravia [now part of Czech Republic] (Dana, 1892, p.1005;  Jehlicka, Villar and Edwards, 2003).
• VALAITE - Not amber:  Black, lustrous resin that "Occurs in thin crusts on dolomite and calcite, or in druses of small crystals, in the Rossitz-Oslawaner Coal formation, Moravia  [now part of Czech Republic] (Dana, 1892 *, p.1051).  [Not to be confused with the "discredited" mineral valléite.]
• VENDEEN(N)ITE - Not amber?:  A fossil resin, not otherwise defined, from the Vendee district of western France (Tomkeieff, 1954).
• WHEELERIT(E) - A retinite?:  "A resin ... found in Cretaceous beds of northern New Mexico [e.g. near Nacimiento], filling fissures of the lignite, or interstratified in thin layers in it."  (Dana, 1892*, p.1008).   [Not to be confused with the "redefined or renamed" mineral weilerite.]
• XILANTITA - Not amber:  Fossil wood (studentsacrossborders.arizona.edu/glossary/X.pdf).
• XILORRENTIN(A)  (xilorrentinita, xylorentinite, etc.) – Not  amber:  "derived by Forchhammer through the action of alcohol on fossil pine-wood from the marshes of Holtegaard in Denmark"  (Dana, 1892*, p.1009).
• CHINESE (etc.) [all on www.ambericawest.com]  - A-Shih-Mo-Chieh-P'o,  Fêhg I Sung Chi,  Fuling,  Fung Chi,  Hsiang P'o, Kao Li, Ming P'o, Nan P'o, Shih Chieh, & Sung CHINESE & KOREAN - Wo kuo;  CHINESE & VIETNAMESE - Tun Mou.   [To date, I have found no one who knows the language(s) who is willing to comment on any of these terms other than to say something to the effect that each would have to be seen in script and/or context before anyone should even suggest what any of them designates.]

* References to "(Dana, 1892...)" are given in lieu of his cited original/basic references, which I have not checked.  Also, it seems only prudent to mention that several hydrocarbons, which are similarly described in Dana's compilation, are not included on the above list because I have not seen them recorded as referring to amber as such.

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Acknowledgments: The listed designations were found in printed and online dictionaries, glossaries and other publications and/or sent to me by correspondents. Individuals from several countries provided information used to verify the fact that the designations given for their languages apply to amber the fossil resin. Some of those correspondents also supplied the included image files for the non-Roman scripts.  Others helped by supplying or directing me to sources of additional information, getting references (some rather obscure) through interlibrary loan, critiquing the copy, etc., etc.   I extend my grateful thanks to each of these people: Simon Ager, Mahmood Bahaee, William Birch, Akiva Caspi, Frances S. Dietrich, Kurt R. Dietrich, Richard S. Dietrich, Carla Dimalanta, Margaret Dodd, Jeffrey de Fourestier, Ebbe Friis, Craig Gibson, David Ginsburg, Eden Golshani, P. & Vipin Gopal, Tea Kharitonashvili, Stephanos P. Kilias, Alfred A. Levinson, Jun Li, Emmett Mason, Mahmoud Moursi, Junlin Pan, Chengxiang Peng, Vladimer Petkov, Prentiss Riddle, Maxim N. Severinovsky, San San Hnin Tun, Reed Wicander, Graciano P. Yumul, Jr., Aparna V. Zambare, unnamed persons associated with Funwitharabic.com and Salik Ltd., and one of the members of the Sanskrit Team.

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