sambur
(ˈsæmbə(r))
Forms: 7 sabre, 9 sabir, samboo, sambar, samber, sambhur, sambhar, sambre, sambur, saumer. Also samba.
[a. Hindī sābar, sāmbar.]
Either of two large deer, Cervus unicolor or C. equinus, native to southern Asia.
| 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 175 Our usual Diet was..spotted Deer, Sabre, Wild Hogs, and sometimes Wild Cows. 1813 in J. Forbes Oriental Mem. (ed. 2) II. 400 (Y.) Four large sabirs or samboos, one considerably bigger than an ox. 1862 Beveridge Hist. India I. Introd. 11 The saumer, or black rusa of Bengal. 1864 Trevelyan Compet. Wallah (1866) 161 Sambhur, a gigantic deer of the elk species. 1883 I. L. Bishop in Leisure Ho. 85/1 The palandok..and the sambre may not be far off. 1913 L. Woolf Village in Jungle ii. 25 He showed them the sambur lying during the day in the other great caves. 1964 Ld. Medway in Wang Gungwu Malaysia i. iii. 57 This large group includes several animals widespread in South-east Asia such as the..Sambar and Barking Deer. |
| attrib. 1829 E. T. Bennett Tower Menag. 187 The Samboo Deer..belongs to the Rusa group. 1874 H. H. Cole Catal. Objects Indian Art S. Kensington Mus. ii. 107 Strips of sappan wood.., ebony and samber horn dyed green. 1883 Ld. Saltoun Scraps II. 175 Long yellow sambur-skin boots. 1898 R. G. Burton Tropics & Snows 261 He may find a sambhur stag. 1950 J. H. Williams Elephant Bill xi. 166, I once jumped into a creek, ten yards from a tiger, that was..eating a freshly killed samba deer. 1969 J. Leasor Week of Love v. 92 A dapper man..with sambur skin shoes. |