English

Noun

ambo ‎(plural ambos or ambones)

1. A raised platform in an early Christian church, as well as in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic churches.
   • 1918, ‘It will get better somehow,’ he thought, and went to the ambo. On going up the steps and turning to the right he saw the priest. — Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, tr. Louise & Aylmer Maude (Oxford 1998, page 438)
   • 1997, the Emperor arrived and instead of moving directly to his seat climbed to the top level of the ambo, the great three-decker pulpit of polychrome marble. — John Julius Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium (Penguin 1998, page 150)
2. (Roman Catholicism) A stationary podium used for readings and homilies.
   • 2010, The dignity of the Word of God requires that in the church there be a suitable place from which it may be proclaimed and toward which the attention of the faithful naturally turns during the Liturgy of the Word. It is appropriate that generally this place be a stationary ambo and not simply a movable lectern. (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 2011, #309)

Translations

Related terms

• ambon, lectern, podium, pulpit

Etymology 2

Shortening of ambulance + -o.

Noun

ambo ‎(plural ambos)

1. (informal) An ambulance driver.
2. (informal) An ambulance.

Translations

Anagrams

• boma
• Moab, MOAB

Buginese

Noun

ambo

1. father

Italian

Adjective

ambo ‎(invariable)

1. both

Noun

ambo m ‎(plural ambi)

1. double (in various games)

Anagrams

• boma

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰi ‎(“round about, around”), proposed by some from *h₂n̥t-bʰi ‎(“from both sides”), one case form in -bʰi from the root noun *h₂ent- ‎(“front, front side”), whence ante. Cognates include Ancient Greek ἀμφί ‎(amphí, “both, facing”) or ἀμφώ ‎(amphṓ, “both, facing”), Gaulish ambi-, Proto-Germanic *umbi, Sanskrit अभि ‎(abhí, “towards, over, upon”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈam.boː/

Determiner

ambō m ‎(feminine ambae, neuter ambō)

1. both (of objects occurring in pairs)
2. the two (when the duality of the objects is assumed to be known)
   • Vergilius, Aeneis; Book VI, line 540

     Hic locus est, partes ubi se via findit in ambas.

     Here is the place, where the way divides itself into two parts.

Inflection

Irregular, no singular.

Descendants

See also

• duo
• uterque

References

• ambo in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ambo in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• AMBO in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “ambo”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press

Minangkabau

Pronoun

ambo

1. first person singular; I

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin ambō.

Noun

ambo m ‎(plural ambos)

1. (Argentina, Chile) suit

See also

• ambos