ambulance

Etymology

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

noun

  1. An emergency vehicle designed for transporting seriously ill or injured people to a hospital.
  2. (military) A mobile field hospital.
  3. (obsolete, US) A prairie wagon.

verb

  1. (transitive) To transport by ambulance.
    Ambulancing patients with acute obstruction over cobble and rails should not be tolerated; better render the necessary service where the patient is found. 1918, Western Surgical Association: Transactions, volume 27, page 66

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