ambages

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French ambages (French ambages), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin ambāges, from ambi- + agere (“to drive”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈam.bɪ.d͡ʒɪz/

Noun

1. (archaic) Indirect or roundabout ways of talking; circumlocution.
   • Template:RQ:RBrtn AntmyMlncly, Bk.I, New York, 2001, p.169:

     Having thus briefly anatomized the body and soul of man, […] I may now freely proceed to treat of my intended subject, to most men's capacity; and after many ambages, perspicuously define what this melancholy is […].

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.

Translations

indirect or roundabout ways of talking — see circumlocution

indirect or roundabout routes or directions

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

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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
• French: ambages
• 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)
2. (rare) ambages (indirect or roundabout routes or directions)

Synonyms

• circunlocución
• circunloquios
• rodeos

Derived terms

• andar con ambages
• ambagioso

Further reading

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