samovar means A metal urn with a spigot, for boiling water for making tea. Traditionally, the water is heated by hot coals or charcoal in a chimney-like tube which runs through the center of the urn. Today, it is more likely that the water is heated by an electric coil. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
Why this word is great
SAMOVAR — [Noun] A metal urn with an internal heating tube, used to boil water for tea. From Russian самова́р (samovár, "self-boiler"), from само́ (samó, "self") + вари́ть (varítʹ, "to boil, cook"). Unlike a teapot—a passive vessel for steeping—or a kettle, which submits to a stove's flame, a samovar is a portable, sovereign engine. It is the hiss of charcoal in its chimney, the gleam of polished brass in a dim parlor, and the perpetual, comforting plume from its tap—a small, steadfast sun around which talk revolves, a machine whose purpose is the patient generation of warmth against the vast, cold silence waiting outside.
noun
- A metal urn with a spigot, for boiling water for making tea. Traditionally, the water is heated by hot coals or charcoal in a chimney-like tube which runs through the center of the urn. Today, it is more likely that the water is heated by an electric coil.“The samovar was beginning to sing; the laborers and the family, having disposed of the horses, came in to dinner.”