samovar
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of samovar
1820–30; < Russian samovár, equivalent to samo- self ( see 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
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
“The kids sold family pieces their mom had brought from Russia, including a samovar, in order to eat,” Vicki wrote.
From Washington Post • May 27, 2019
I dream that lawla flowers will bloom in the streets of Kabul again and rubab music will play in the samovar houses and kites will fly in the skies.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
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.
