Etymologically
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ambrosia

Etymology and origin of the English word ambrosia

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Formation
Borrowing
Borrowed from
Latin ambrosia

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /æmˈbɹoʊʒə/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ambrosia,[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek ἀμβροσία (ambrosía, “food of the gods; immortality”),[2][4][6] the noun use of the feminine of ambrósios “divine, of the immortals”,[2][5][6] from ámbrotos “immortal”,[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not”) + -μβροτος (-mbrotos, “mortal”).[3][4][5] The second element is related to brotós “mortal” and to Latin mortuus “dead” and English murder,[4][6] from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to rub away, harm; to die”).[2][3] Barnhart allows a passage through Middle French ambroysie;[5] Random House notes that it replaced Middle English ambrose.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The food or drink of the gods in Greek myth, believed to give immortality.[2][7][3] Etymonline dates it to the 1560s, the OED's first quotation for the drink sense to 1567, Barnhart to 1555 and Random House to 1545–55,[2][7][5][6] while Merriam-Webster dates the word to the 15th century.[4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the food of the gods, ambrosia was their drink (1567) and their perfumed anointing oil (1667).[7] From the 1680s the name was given to delicious drinks and foods for mortals,[2][7] and by 1731 to anything delightful to taste or smell.[2][7] Early herbalists applied it to various plants,[7][2] and in botany it became the genus name of the ragweeds.[7] In the United States it also names a fruit dessert of oranges and shredded coconut.[3][4][6]

Timeline

  • 1567 – the fabled drink of the gods.[7]
  • 1590 – the fabled food of the gods.[7]
  • 1597 – the name of various plants among the herbalists.[7]
  • 1609 – bee-bread.[7]
  • 1667 – the unguent or anointing oil of the gods.[7]
  • 1685 – a fruit drink or perfumed beverage.[7][2]
  • 1731 – anything divinely sweet to taste or smell.[7][2]
  • 1896 – a fungus that wood-boring beetles feed on.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. (mythology) The food of the Greek and Roman gods, which conferred immortality; also their ointment or perfume.
  2. Something especially delicious to taste or smell.
  3. A dessert of oranges and shredded coconut, sometimes with pineapple.
  4. A mixture of pollen and nectar prepared by bees as food for their larvae; bee-bread.

Word family

  • ambrosial
  • ambrosially
  • ambrosian
  • ambrosia beetle
  • nectar
  • mortal
  • murder

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d e f Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Ambrosia.” Etymologically, 15 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/ambrosia. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·