samovar
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of samovar
1820–30; < Russian samovár, equivalent to samo- self ( same ) + -var, noun derivative of varítʾ to cook, boil
Explanation
If you order tea in a Russian restaurant, you're likely to see a samovar, a metal container used for heating tea or coffee water. Russian words in English are a small but unfailingly interesting group, including this one: a metal urn with a spigot, used for boiling water. The Russian roots mean "self-boiler," or "self-cooking." Samovars are commonly used not only in Russia, but in Kashmir, Iran, and Turkey as well. A Google image search will fix this indispensable metal appliance in your mind.
Vocabulary lists containing samovar
National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 2
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A Thousand Splendid Suns
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"The Overcoat" by Nikolai Gogol
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
One by one the participants approach a gigantic samovar, select a tea cup and fill it with hot water.
From BBC • Sep. 19, 2025
Ivan Shabelnyk left home with a friend on March 23 to collect pine cones so the family could light the samovar and have tea.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 2, 2022
There will be no samovar, there will be no parasols.
From New York Times • Jun. 22, 2021
Home is the usual Russian affair—chaise longue: check; samovar: check—but the women’s clothes, and their language, are jarringly modern.
From The New Yorker • Jul. 29, 2019
Now she tried to stand up, but her legs buckled beneath her, and she nearly fell into the samovar.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
