ambassador

ambassador
\ \ [14] Appropriately enough, ambassador is a highly cosmopolitan word. It was borrowed back and forth among several European languages before arriving in English.
\ \ Its ultimate source appears to be the Indo- European root *ag- ‘drive, lead’, whose other numerous offspring include English act and agent. With the addition of the prefix *amb- ‘around’ (as in ambidextrous), this produced in the Celtic languages of Gaul the noun ambactos, which was borrowed by Latin as ambactusvassal’. The Latin word then found its way into the Germanic languages – Old English had ambehtservant, messenger’, Old High German ambaht (from which modern German gets amtofficial position’) – from which it was later borrowed back into medieval Latin as ambactia.
\ \ This seems to have formed the basis of a verb, *ambactiārego on a mission’ (from which English ultimately gets embassy), from which in turn was derived the noun *ambactiātor. This became ambasciator in Old Italian, from which Old French borrowed it as ambassadeur. The word had a be wildering array of spellings in Middle English (such as ambaxadour and inbassetour) before finally settling down as ambassador in the 16th century.
\ \ Cf.EMBASSY

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР
Synonyms:
(of the highest rank), , , ,


Look at other dictionaries:

  • Ambassador V8 — Ambassador Brougham Limousine (1973) mit 6,6 Liter V8 Der Ambassador war die größte PKW Baureihe, die die American Motors Corporation (AMC) in den Jahren 1958 bis 1974 herstellte. Der Wagen war bekannt als Rambler Ambassador, Ambassador V8 von… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ambassador — (engl. für „Botschafter, Repräsentant“) steht für: Airspeed AS.57 Ambassador, ein Flugzeugmodell des Herstellers Airspeed, siehe Airspeed AS 57 Ambassador Cessna 404, ein Flugzeugmodell, siehe Cessna 404 Ambassador Club, ein humanitärer… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Ambassador 21 — is a Breakcore/Harsh Electronic/Cybercore/Digital Hardcore/Metal band from Minsk, Belarus. Most of Ambassador 21 s lyrics are in Russian, Belarusian, and English languages.HistoryAmbassador 21 was founded in the summer of 2001 by Natasha (Vocals …   Wikipedia

  • ambassador — ambassador, legate, nuncio, minister, envoy, internuncio, chargé d’affaires all designate a diplomatic agent serving his sovereign or government in a foreign country and are here compared with reference to their order of precedence as fixed by… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • Ambassador — (Вильнюс,Литва) Категория отеля: 2 звездочный отель Адрес: Gedimino pr. 12, Старый город …   Каталог отелей

  • ambassador — [am bas′ə dər, am bas′ədôr΄] n. [ME ambassatour < MFr ambassateur < OIt ambasciatore < Prov ambaissador < * ambaissa, mission, task < Goth andbahti, office, service < Celt * amb(i)actos, a messenger, servant (> L ambactus, a… …   English World dictionary

  • Ambassador — Titre original Ambassador Lyrics Hal Hackady Musique Don Gohman Mise en scène Stone Widney Chorégraphie Gillian Lynne Costumes Peter Rice Première 19 octobre …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Ambassador I + II — (Нанда,Швейцария) Категория отеля: Адрес: 1997 Нанда, Швейцария …   Каталог отелей

  • Ambassador — Am*bas sa*dor, Embassador Em*bas sa*dor, n. [See {Embassador}.] 1. A minister of the highest rank sent to a foreign court to represent there his sovereign or country. [1913 Webster] Note: Ambassadors are either ordinary [or resident] or… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • ambassador — index deputy, plenipotentiary, spokesman Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • ambassador — (n.) late 14c., also embassador, from M.Fr. ambassadeur, from O.Fr. embassator, via Provençal or Old Spanish from L. ambactus a servant, vassal, from Celt. amb(i)actos a messenger, servant, from PIE *ambhi about (see AMBI (Cf. ambi )) + *ag drive …   Etymology dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”