Anbar

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term used to describe a large storehouse or warehouse for goods, especially in Middle Eastern contexts
2. A type of storage building traditionally employed for keeping commodities or merchandise secure; it may also refer to a trading post or depot in certain cultures
3. An architectural structure designed for the safekeeping or storage of goods and materials, often associated with markets or commercial activities in specific regions

Etymology: Arabic "al-anbār" (الأنبار) is a store or warehouse, and it has an unusual tie to a Middle Persian word for the same thing. The Arabic term was borrowed from Persian "anbār", a word for a storehouse for grain, goods and provisions, and the two forms have a shared origin that also gave English a doublet: "sambar" (the storehouse sense of a related Persian-derived word) sits alongside this one in English. Persian borrowed the storehouse idea itself, so the word travelled from Middle Persian into Arabic and then into English. Within Persian, the word is used for a storage place, and in Arabic usage it became particularly associated with markets and trading centres, where goods were kept until they were sold. That commercial focus is why the term appears so often in discussions of bazaars and merchant districts across the Middle East and South Asia.

Synonyms: ambergris, sperm whale secretion