ambages

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈam.bɪ.d͡ʒɪz/

Noun

ambages pl (plural only)

1. (archaic) Indirect or roundabout ways of talking; circumlocution.
   • 1632, Vicar's Virgil, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Thus from her cell Cumæan Sibyl sings / Ambiguous ambages, the cloyster rings / With the shrill sound thereof, in most dark strains.

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, page 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.

Derived terms

• circumambages

Related terms

• ambiguous

Translations

indirect or roundabout ways of talking — see circumlocution

indirect or roundabout routes or directions

French

Pronunciation

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Noun

ambages

1. plural of ambage

Latin

Alternative forms

• ambāgō

Etymology

From ambi- (“around”) +‎ agō (“to behave, proceed”) +‎ -ēs (noun-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [amˈbaː.ɡeːs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [amˈbaː.d͡ʒes]

Noun

ambāgēs f (genitive ambāgis); third declension

1. an indirect, roundabout path; a wandering to and fro, twists and turns
   1. Used to denote any intricate or tortuous process, system or scheme
2. (of discourse or behavior) circumlocution, ambiguity, evasion, digression, beating about the bush
   • c. 105–116, Tacitus, Ab excessu divi Augusti (Annales), volume III, section LI:

     Id Tiberius solitis sibi ambagibus apud senatum incusavit

     For this, Tiberius reprimanded the senate with his usual ambiguities

3. a mental uncertainty or confusion

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	ambāgēs	ambāgēs
genitive	ambāgis	ambāgum
dative	ambāgī	ambāgibus
accusative	ambāgem	ambāgēs
ablative	ambāge	ambāgibus
vocative	ambāgēs	ambāgēs

Related terms

• ambigō
• ambiguus

Descendants

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

References

• “ambāgēs” on page 125 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)

Further reading

• “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, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to speak without circumlocution: missis ambagibus dicere
    

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

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ambāges.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /amˈbaxes/ [ãmˈba.xes]
• Rhymes: -axes
• Syllabification: am‧ba‧ges

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:

     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

• ambagioso
• andar con ambages

Further reading

• “ambages”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024