pomander
/ˈpoʊ.mæn.dɚ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.28 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A mixture of aromatic substances, made into a ball and carried by a person to impart a sweet smell or as a protection against infection.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Take red Storar, Nutmegs, Cucubes, Cloues, Nardus ſeed, Lignum Aloes, Indy Spica, and Cinamom, of each one drag. Muſcus and Amber of each one ſcruple, Landanum one ounce, make a Pomander thereof, like as there be many deſcribed in the ſixt part, and is alſo taught how the ſame is to be made."
- "Your onely way to make a good pomander, is this. Take an ownce of the pureſt garden mould, clenſed and ſteeped ſeauen daies in change of motherleſſe roſe water, then take the beſt Labdanum, Benioine, both Storaxes, amber greece, and Ciuet, and muſke, incorporate them together, and work them into what form you pleaſe; this, if your breath bee not to valiant, will make you ſmell as ſweete as my Ladies dogge."
- "I have ſold all my Tromperie: not a counterfeit Stone, not a Ribbon, Glaſſe, Pomander, Browch, Table-booke, Ballad, Knife, Tape, Gloue, Shooe-tye, Bracelet, Horne-Ring, to keepe my Pack from faſting: […]"
- "Colonel Johnson was talking to her earnestly, leaning over the card-table. On seeing Miss Harrison's gesture he rose suddenly, and attached to the ribbon of his watch was my godmother's silver pomander."
- "In well-known portraits of the period the fashionable pomander is much in evidence. In Plate LV, page 547, the Spanish lady holds a jeweled pomander pendant to her girdle. The girdle, pomander, rings, pendant, tiara, and jeweled fur piece are excellent examples of the various kinds of ornament which prevailed during this century."
- "Two very early pomanders were undoubtedly produced for different classes English society: the black, waxy ball moulded around a gold shaft, for the wealthy; the carved nut shell, for a lower class."
Etymology
From Old French pome d'embre (literally “apple of ambergris”), from Medieval Latin pōmum dē ambra: pōmum (“fruit”) (possibly from *po-emo (“picked off”)); ambra (“amber; ambergris”) (probably from ambrosia (“food or unguent of the gods”), from Ancient Greek ᾰ̓́μβροτος (ắmbrotos, “divine, immortal; belonging to the gods”), from Proto-Indo-European *n̥mr̥tós (“immortal”)).
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpoʊ.mæn.dɚ/
- British English: /ˈpɒ.mæn.də/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
pomandered