Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- Classical Mythology. the food of the gods.Compare nectar(def 3).
- something especially delicious to taste or smell.
- a fruit dessert made of oranges and shredded coconut and sometimes pineapple.
noun
- classical myth the food of the gods, said to bestow immortalityCompare nectar (def. 2)
- anything particularly delightful to taste or smell
- another name for beebread
- any of various herbaceous plants constituting the genus Ambrosia, mostly native to America but widely naturalized: family Asteraceae (composites). The genus includes the ragweeds
1550s, “favored food or drink of the gods,” from Latin ambrosia, from Greek ambrosia “food of the gods,” fem. of ambrosios, probably literally “of the immortals,” from a- “not” (see a- (3)) + mbrotos, related to mortos “mortal,” from PIE *mer- “to die” (see mortal (adj.)). Applied to certain herbs by Pliny and Dioscorides; used of various foods for mortals since 1680s (originally of fruit drinks); used figuratively for “anything delightful” by 1731.
The food of the gods in classical mythology. Those who ate it became immortal.