ambages

English

Etymology

From Middle English ambages, from Old French ambages (modern French ambages), from Latin ambāges, from ambi- + agere (“to drive”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈam.bɪ.d͡ʒɪz/

Noun

1. (archaic) Indirect or roundabout ways of talking; circumlocution.
   • 1632, Vicar's Virgil

     Thus from her cell Cumæan Sibyl sings / Ambiguous ambages, the cloyster rings / With the shrill sound thereof, in most dark strains.
2. (archaic) Indirect or roundabout routes or directions.
   • 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man In Deptford:

     Paris put fear into him, a city of monstrous size to which London was but a market town. Its ambages of streets bewildered.

Related terms

• ambiguous

Translations

indirect or roundabout ways of talking — see circumlocution

indirect or roundabout routes or directions

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

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French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

ambages

1. plural of ambage

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Latin

Etymology

From ambi- (“both”) +‎ agō (“I drive”) +‎ -ēs (noun forming suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /amˈbaː.ɡeːs/, [ämˈbäːɡeːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /amˈba.d͡ʒes/, [ämˈbäːd͡ʒes]

Noun

ambāgēs f (genitive ambāgis); third declension

1. circuit (roundabout way)
2. long story
3. circumlocution, evasion, digression
4. ambiguity

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ambāgēs	ambāgēs
Genitive	ambāgis	ambāgum
Dative	ambāgī	ambāgibus
Accusative	ambāgem	ambāgēs
Ablative	ambāge	ambāgibus
Vocative	ambāgēs	ambāgēs

Descendants

• Catalan: ambages
• Corsican: ambacu
• Old French: ambages
  • French: ambages
  • → English: ambages
• Galician: ambaxes
• Italian: ambage
• Polish: ambaje
• Portuguese: ambages
• Spanish: ambages

References

• “ambages”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ambages”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ambages in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• ambages in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to speak without circumlocution: missis ambagibus dicere
    

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Old French

Etymology

Circa 1355, borrowed from Latin ambāges.

Noun

ambages m pl

1. circumlocution, ambages (indirect or roundabout ways of talking)

Descendants

• → English: ambages
• French: ambages

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Spanish

Etymology

From Latin ambāges.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /amˈbaxes/ [ãmˈba.xes]

Noun

ambages m pl (plural only)

1. circumlocution, ambages (indirect or roundabout ways of talking)

   Synonyms: circunlocución, circunloquios

   • 2020 September 6, “Johnson prepara a los británicos para un Brexit duro a finales de año”, in El País‎^[2]:

     Pero en esta ocasión, todos los actores reconocen que el Gobierno de Johnson comienza a mostrar sin ambages sus verdaderas cartas, y que ya no disimula su objetivo final de abandonar con las menores ataduras posibles su relación con la UE.

     But on this occasion, all the actors recognize that the Johnson government is beginning to [unambiguously] show its true colors, and that it no longer hides its final objective of ending its relationship with the EU with as few ties as possible.

2. (rare) ambages (indirect or roundabout routes or directions)

   Synonym: rodeos

Derived terms

• andar con ambages
• ambagioso

Further reading

• “ambages”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014