ambulance

Definitions

ambul (walk, move about) + -ance (noun). But the path is through French, not a clean Latin build: it comes from *hôpital ambulant*, a 'walking/moving hospital' that traveled with Napoleon's armies. The phrase was shortened to *ambulance*, and the meaning narrowed from 'mobile field medicine' to today's emergency vehicle. The root's 'walking' sense survives as 'the medical service that comes to you.'

Why It Means This

It feels odd that a word for 'walking' became the name of a fast vehicle. The link is mobility, not speed: in the Napoleonic era, the hôpital ambulant was a hospital that could pack up and follow the troops instead of staying fixed in one town. As the concept shrank to the cart and then the motor van that carried the wounded, the 'moving medicine' idea stayed intact — an ambulance still goes to the patient.

Common Collocations

• 1.call an ambulance叫救护车
• 2.ambulance service救护车服务（急救服务）
• 3.ambulance crew救护车急救人员
• 4.by ambulance乘救护车
• 5.ambulance driver救护车司机

Example Sentences

• 1.

  Someone collapsed on the platform, so we called an ambulance immediately.

• 2.

  The ambulance arrived within ten minutes and rushed him to the hospital.

• 3.

  Paramedics worked on the patient inside the ambulance the whole way.