8 August 2017
ambergris
[am-ber-grees, -gris]
noun
1. an opaque, ash-colored secretion of the sperm whale intestine, usually found floating on the ocean or cast ashore: used in perfumery.
Origin of ambergris
late Middle English Middle French
1375-1425; < Middle French ambre gris gray amber (see amber ); replacing late Middle English imbergres
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for ambergris
Historical Examples
These Portuguese exchanged a lump of ambergris, or what was supposed to be ambergris, for old clothes.
History of the Buccaneers of America
James Burney
The hatches were off her hold and our sealskins and our ambergris gone from below.
Sonnie-Boy’s People
James B. Connolly
A drop or two (not more) of essence of ambergris or vanilla improves it.
Cooley’s Practical Receipts, Volume II
Arnold Cooley
Anagram
barge rims
Ambers rig
miser brag
Today’s quote
I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.
– Mother Teresa
On this day
8 August 1864 – Formation of the Red Cross in Geneva, Switzerland.
8 August 1879 – birth of Emiliano Zapata Salazar, Mexican revolutionary. Died 10 April 1919.
8 August 1945 – The Soviet Union declares war on the Empire of Japan and invades the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. In late, July 1945 Japan, naively, had been petitioning the neutral Soviets to broker a peace deal favourable to the Japanese. While the invasion violated the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, it was in accordance with the secret Yalta Agreements that the Soviet Union made with the United States and the United Kingdom at the Crimea Conference held between 4-11 February 1945, in which Stalin agreed to attack Japan within 3 months of Germany’s surrender.
8 August 1953 – conclusion of negotiations for the 1953 London Debt Agreement which had begun on 27 February 1953, when West Germany was given debt relief by creditor nations, which included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, the United States, Yugoslavia and others. The debt of 32 billion marks (16 billion owed to the United States and 16 billion to other nations) had accumulated since the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The London Agreement halved the debt to 15 billion marks to be paid out over 30 years. The repayments were capped at 3% of export earnings and were only required while West Germany had a trade surplus. This significantly boosted West Germany’s export market and directly resulted in Germany becoming an economic powerhouse.
8 August 1959 – death of Albert Namatjira, Australian Aboriginal artist. Born 28 July 1902.
8 August 1974 – USA President Richard Nixon resigns because of his impending impeachment for ‘obstruction of justice’, ‘abuse of power’, and ‘contempt of congress’, in relation to the Watergate Scandal.
8 August 1981 – birth of Roger Federer in Switzerland, champion tennis player.
8 August 1988 – The ‘8888’ Uprising in Burma, from which Aung Sun Suu Kyi gains popularity and becomes a national hero.