Sambuca The oils are added to pure alcohol, a concentrated solution of sugar, and other flavouring. The "Oxford English Dictionary" states that the term comes from the Latin word "sambucus", meaning "elderberry". The Greek word "Sambuca" was first used as the name of another elderberry liquor that was created in Civitavecchia about 130 years ago. The first commercial version of such a drink started at the end of 1800 in Civitavecchia, where Luigi Manzi sold "Sambuca Manzi". In 1945, soon after the end of Second World War, commendatore Angelo Molinari started producing "Sambuca Extra Molinari", which helped popularise Sambuca throughout Italy.
Sambuca (instrument) in 1476, the sambuca is described as a cithara, which in that century was generally glossed "harp": In "Tristan und Isolde" (bars 7563-72) when the knight is enumerating to King Marke all the instruments upon which he can play, the "sambiut" is the last mentioned: A Latin–French glossary has the equivalence Psalterium = . During the later Middle Ages was often translated "sackbut" in the vocabularies, whether merely from the phonetic similarity of the two words has not yet been established. The great Boulogne Psalter (11th Century) contains many fanciful instruments which are evidently intended to illustrate the equally vague