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Posted: **Fri Apr 04, 2008 12:23 pm**

So what is the root of "ambu"? It must me something like in motion or portable.

I am think about words like ambulance, ambulatory, and ambu-bag.

Or does it get even fine such as in cabulance?

Just curious,

~E

Posted: **Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:45 pm**

If you guess it comes from Latin or Greek you have a good chance of being correct. This one's from Latin.

ambulance
1809, "mobile or field hospital," from Fr. (hôpital) ambulant, lit. "walking (hospital)," from L. ambulans (gen. ambulantis), from ambulare "to walk" (see amble). Not common until meaning transferred from "hospital" to "vehicle for conveying wounded from field" (1854) during the Crimean War. Ambulance-chaser as a contemptuous term for a type of lawyer dates from 1897.