Ambulance

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈæm.bjə.ləns/

Definitions

1. A vehicle equipped with medical personnel and equipment designed to transport injured or ill individuals to a hospital for emergency treatment
2. A specialized automobile that carries medical staff and supplies to provide urgent care and transport sick or injured patients to medical facilities
3. An emergency response vehicle that is staffed with healthcare professionals and is designed to swiftly convey patients requiring medical attention to hospitals

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "ambulance" is that it began as a phrase rather than a single word. In the French of the late 18th century, the mobile field hospital was called a "hôpital ambulant", a "moving hospital", and the noun was simply that adjective, "ambulant", pulled out and given a new suffix. The model for the sense is the Latin "ambulare", "to walk about", which also gave English "amble" and "perambulate". The suffix "-ance" turned the adjective into a noun for the thing itself, and the French word "ambulance" replaced the longer phrase. English borrowed it from French, so the word carried the idea of a hospital that goes to the fighting rather than waiting for the wounded to arrive. Its sense shifted from a travelling field hospital to any vehicle carrying the sick and injured, a change that happened as the vehicles themselves changed.

Synonyms: emergency vehicle, medic, rescue vehicle

Antonyms: fire truck, police car