ambulance

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A vehicle that takes sick or injured people to hospital quickly.

   Someone called an ambulance as soon as the man collapsed in the street.

Simplified etymology

Ambulance comes from French hôpital ambulant, literally “walking hospital,” ultimately from Latin ambulare, meaning “to walk.” First used during the Crimean War, it originally denoted a mobile temporary hospital following an army. It was later applied to a wagon or cart carrying wounded soldiers from the battlefield and then acquired its modern meaning.

Borrowed from French ambulance, which replaced hôpital ambulant (“moving hospital”) via the suffix -ance, from Latin ambulō (“to walk; to go about”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary