Ambulance

[billyshears]

What is the origin of the word "ambulance", now generally regarded as a motor vehicle that takes patients to and from hospital?

[ursula62]

Some suggest it was transport for the walking wounded. The word root is the same as for ambulatory, which is to do with walking - from the Latin ambulo, which means I walk or I move. The seriously wounded were treated on the battle field, and the dead were loaded onto carts or left where they fell.

However, there are also suggestions that it comes from the wagons used in the Napoleonic wars - which were known as "hopital ambulant", or moving hospitals. The same word root applies to this as French is also based on Latin word roots.

[Quizmonster]

Ursula is exactly right as to the Latin/French origins of the word. Just to put a date on matters as regards English usage, the 'moving hospital' idea first appeared in the very early 1800s whilst the 'vehicle/wagon' idea did not come into general use until the 1850s. It has retained the latter meaning, more or less, ever since.

[billyshears]

thanks guys