Crossword clues for sambuca
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Italian liqueur resembling anisette, 1971, from Italian, from Latin sambucus "elder tree."
Wiktionary
n. An Italian liqueur made from elderberries and flavoured with licorice. Traditionally served with 3 coffee beans that represent health, wealth and fortune (or past, present and future).
WordNet
n. an Italian liqueur made with elderberries and flavored with licorice
Wikipedia
Sambuca is an Italian anise-flavoured, usually colourless, liqueur. Its most common variety is often referred to as white sambuca to differentiate it from other varieties that are deep blue in colour (black sambuca) or bright red (red sambuca). Like other anise-flavoured liqueurs, the ouzo effect is sometimes observed when combined with water.
The sambuca was a ship-borne siege engine which was invented by Heraclides of Tarentum and were first used unsuccessfully by Marcus Claudius Marcellus during the Roman siege of Syracuse in 213 BC.
Polybius describes usage of the machine:
As well as these vessels he had eight quinqueremes in pairs. Each pair had had their oars removed, one on the port and the other on the starboard side, and then these had been lashed together on the sides thus left bare. On these double vessels, rowed by the outer oars of each of the pair, they brought up under the walls some engines called “Sambucae,” the construction of which was as follows: A ladder was made four feet broad, and of a height to reach the top of the wall from the place where its foot had to rest; each side of the ladder was protected by a railing, and a covering or pent-house was added overhead. It was then placed so that its foot rested across the sides of the lashed-together vessels, which touched each other with its other extremity protruding a considerable way beyond the prows. On the tops of the masts pulleys were fixed with ropes: and when the engines were about to be used, men standing on the sterns of the vessels drew the ropes tied to the head of the ladder, while others standing on the prows assisted the raising of the machine and kept it steady with long poles. Having then brought the ships close in shore by using the outer oars of both vessels they tried to let the machine down upon the wall. At the head of the ladder was fixed a wooden stage secured on three sides by wicker-shields, upon which stood four men who fought and struggled with those who tried to prevent the sambuca from being made to rest on the battlements. But when they have fixed it and so got above the level of the top of the wall, the four men unfasten the wicker shields from either side of the stage, and walk out upon the battlements or towers as the case may be; they are followed by their comrades coming up by the sambuca, since the ladder’s foot is safely secured with ropes and stands upon both the ships. This construction has got the name “sambuca” or “harp” for the natural reason, that when it is raised the combination of the ship and ladder has very much the appearance of such an instrument.
They were used again unsuccessfully during the siege of Chios. This may have been the siege conducted by Philip V in 201 BC, but neither source specified the date.
A different design of machine, also called a sambuca, was used unsuccessfully by Mithridates VI of Pontus in his attack on Rhodes in 88 B.C.
The engine was built upon two ships lashed together and consisted of towers between which an assault bridge was hoisted. Mithridates' sambuca had rams and projectiles as part of its offensive battery. During its deployment but before it could be successfully employed to transport soldiers, it fell. With it, fell the fortunes of the eastern wave against Rhodes, the Pontic king withdrawing. Fifteen years later, Mithridates again used a siege engine, in his unsuccessful attack on Cyzicus. Later classical sources confuse the sambuca for a ship mounted siege tower. Vegetius used the term sambuca as the name given to the assault ramp mounted on a siege tower.
The name sambuca, is derived from an Egyptian harp which it was said to resemble.
The sambuca (also sambute, sambiut, sambue, sambuque, or sambuke) was an ancient stringed instrument of Asiatic origin. However, many other instruments have also been called a "sambuca".
Sambuca is an alcoholic drink.
Sambuca may also refer to:
- Sambuca (siege engine), ancient naval weapon
- Sambuca (musical instrument), ancient stringed instrument
- "Sambuca" (song), a song by British garage act Wideboys
- Sambuca di Sicilia, comune in Sicily, Italy
- Sambuca Pistoiese, comune in Tuscany, Italy
- Sambuca Kelly, fictional character in UK TV series Waterloo Road
- Sambucus, botanical genus containing the elder and elderberry.
"Sambuca" is a song by British UK garage duo Wideboys, featuring Dennis G on vocals. It was released in October 2001 as a single. The song was a Top 20 hit, peaking at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart. Two later releases, "Sambuca 2006" and "Sambuca 2008" were released on the Garage Jams and All Around The World labels respectively, which featured more remixes of the track.
Usage examples of "sambuca".
Martin, just a little fuzzy now from the need for more sleep and the effects of the Sambuca, could not help but wonder how she had managed to escape her previous boyfriends without a wedding ring.
As the sambuca rose, Alexander caught a brief glimpse of the soldiers waiting nervously in the shelter of the siege towers: they would follow the first wave to hold the breach and the ruined wall.
The sambuca shuddered into motion, the bucket bobbing up and down against the ratchet despite the restraining blocks.
Arrows, javelins, stones and heavy bolts from the catapults crashed like hail against the sides of the sambuca, and there were shrieks of pain from the men ranged along the side of the carriage, where its bulk offered no protection.
The sambuca had been wetted down before the attack began, but the wood would dry out quickly.
The sambuca trembled, the lip of the bucket bouncing against the wall as the rest of the hypaspists swarmed up the ladder after them.
There was a cheer from further long the wall as the second sambuca reached it, and then the third was in place as well, hypaspists and Foot Companions streaming up the ladders and onto the wall.
Neoptolemus, who had been in the second sambuca, made his way along the crumbling wall to join the king.
But he ordered the espresso and Sambuca from Sal the waiter, and the same for himself, and was chewing on one of the coffee beans from the Sambuca when Bernard came back.
Kelp gave him an alert look, but first Bernard had to taste his Sambuca, then he had to put a sugar cube in his espresso.
Bernard took out a pack of matches, lit one, held it over the Sambuca, and a small blue flame formed on top of the liqueur, where the coffee beans floated.
He had a coffee cup resting next to his right leg along with a small bottle of Sambuca Romana.
But with the Italians, you got evil omens, evil signs, good omens, three coins in the fountain, three beans in the sambuca, and all that stuff.
He filled my glass with sambuca, and I tried the word again, but this time in my mind.
Irish Cream and Butterscotch Schnapps, but you can make it with Sambuca and grenadine, too.