عمبة

Iraqi Arabic

Etymology

Borrowed through the port of Baṣra from Marathi आंबा (āmbā, “mango”) from Sanskrit आम्र (āmra, “mango”) in the years of the British East India Company governing India, when Arabic-speaking Baghdadi Jews pursued business in Bombay and met Marathi-speaking Bene Israel Jews, and exported canned mangos to the Iraq.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈʕæm.ba]

Noun

عمبة (ʕamba) f

1. amba, a whorled mash of mainly pickled mango, employed as a side dish or condiment
   • 2012 August 30, “ar: بالصور ...عراقيون في إسرائيل”, in صوت الجالية العراقية‎^[1] (in Arabic), archived from the original on 2017-11-02:

     عمبة عراقية في إسرائيل
     عوفير بائع "العمبة" العراقية التقليدية، ورث المهنة عن جده الذي كان يملك محلا لبيع " العمبة" في سوق حنون ببغداد. الصورة في السوق العراقي في شخونات هتكفا بمدينة تل أبيب.

     The Iraqi amba
     Ophir, seller of traditional Iraqi “amba“, has inherited the profession from his grandfather who had a store dedicated to the sale of “amba” in the market of lovely Bağdād. The picture is in the Iraqi market of Šəḵūnā́ṯ ha-tiqḇā́ of Tel Aviv.

Descendants

• → Israeli Hebrew: עַמְבָּה (ʿámbā)
  • → English: amba

References

• Kaufman, Jared (2015) “On the Virtues of Amba”, in The Tower‎^[2], number 29