embassy

noun

em·​bas·​sy ˈem-bə-sē How to pronounce embassy (audio)
plural embassies
1
: a body of diplomatic representatives
specifically : one headed by an ambassador
2
a
: the function or position of an ambassador
b
: a mission abroad undertaken officially especially by an ambassador
3
4
: the official residence and offices of an ambassador

Examples of embassy in a Sentence

Protesters marched outside the American embassy.
Recent Examples on the Web The seizure of American hostages at the U.S. embassy in Iran dominated the news during the last 14 months of the Carter administration. Kathryn Watson, CBS News, 1 Oct. 2024 Anderson also visited Assange regularly when he was holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London seeking asylum from 2012 to 2019. Emily Maddick, Glamour, 30 Sep. 2024 However, because of all the embassies, there were great foreign cooks from all over the world, great chefs came to DC and set up restaurants, beginning with Jean Louis Palladin who brought French cooking to DC. Tom Teicholz, Forbes, 29 Sep. 2024 That day, the SAS stormed the Iranian embassy in London – ending a six-day siege that had begun when six gunmen entered the embassy, taking 26 hostages, four of them Britons. The Week Uk, theweek, 26 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for embassy 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'embassy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

probably alteration (by substitution of the suffix -y entry 2) of embassade, variant (with em- after embassador "ambassador" and other derivatives based on Romance forms with em- em- replacing am- of ambassade,) going back to Middle English ambassiat, ambassiad, ambassate, ambassade "office of an ambassador, diplomatic mission, persons trusted with such a mission," borrowed from Anglo-French ambassiate, ambassade "diplomatic mission" and Middle French ambassade, ambaxade "diplomatic or political mission, persons sent on such a mission, ambassador," borrowed from Italian (13th-century) ambasciata "diplomatic mission, official message," borrowed from Old Occitan ambayssada "diplomatic mission," earlier ambayssat "message," derivatives (with the suffixes of action and result -at, -ada) of *ambaissa, going back to Late Latin ambascia, ambassia "mission, errand, task, journey," borrowed from Germanic *ambahtja- "service, office" (whence Old English ambiht, embiht "service, ministry," Old Saxon ambaht "office, service," Old High German ambahti "commission, task, obligation, service," Old Icelandic embætti "service, office, task," Gothic andbahti "office, service, assistance"), derivative of *ambahtjōn- or *ambahta- "servant, follower" (whence Old English ombiht, embiht "servant, attendant, officer," Old Saxon ambahtio "servant," Old High German ambaht "servant, holder of a spiritual or lay office," Old Icelandic ambátt "bondwoman, female servant," Gothic andbahts "servant"), borrowed from Celtic *ambaχto- (whence Welsh amaeth "plowman, tillage," Gaulish *ambaktos, in Latin texts as ambactus "servant"), agentive noun from the verbal adjective of *ambi-ag-, whence Old Irish imm‧aig "(s/he) drives around, pursues," going back to Indo-European *h2m̥bhi "around" + *h2eǵ- "drive" — more at -ade, ambient entry 1, agent

Note: Romance and Medieval Latin forms show frequent fluctuation between initial am- and em- in this family of words; this is conditioned by the replacement of am- by the more transparent verb-forming prefix em-, and perhaps in part also by the homonymy of the two suffixes in medieval French. The form embassy competed in early Modern English with ambassy, but the latter apparently declined by the eighteenth century. Samuel Johnson noted in his dictionary (1755) that "our authors write almost indiscriminately embassador or ambassador, embassage or ambassage; yet there is scarce an example of ambassy, all concurring to write embassy." — The hypothesis that Italian ambasciata represents a loan from Old Occitan rather than a direct borrowing from spoken Latin *ambactiāta or from Germanic is based on phonetic developments in Italian: the cluster -kti̯- regularly results in -cci- (tracciare "to trace, mark out," from *tractiāre) or -zz- (drizzare "to direct," from *dīrectiāre), but not -sci-. — As noted by Ernout and Meillet (Dictionaire étymologique de la langue latine), the word ambactus is not naturalized in Latin ("Mot étranger—non pas mot d'emprunt"). Its use is attributed to the early Roman author Ennius by the grammarian Sextus Pompeius Festus: "apud Ennium lingua gallica seruus appellatur … seruus ambactus, i.e. circumactus dicitur" (in the work of Ennius servus ["slave, servant"] is called [by a word in] Gaulish …servus is ambactus, that is to say, "one who is made to go around"); ambactus is not, however, attested in the extant fragments of Ennius's poetry. More light is thrown on the word by Julius Caesar, who uses the word in describing Gaulish social structure (De bello Gallico, 6.15.2): "… atque eorum ut quisque est genere copiisque amplissimus, ita plurimos circum se ambactos clientesque habet." ("And as each of them [the equites = "knights," as opposed to the druids and the commoners] is distinguished by birth or resources, so he maintains around himself the greater number of ambacti and clients.") Here the word more likely means "follower" or "vassal" than "servant" or "slave," corresponding to its meaning in Germanic ("servant," but also "person fulfilling an official function"). These senses underly the rich development of the word in Romance languages. The Welsh word amaeth "plowman," however, retains what must have been the original meaning of the deverbal derivative, "one who drives (a plowing ox) around."

First Known Use

1549, in the meaning defined at sense 2b

Time Traveler
The first known use of embassy was in 1549

Dictionary Entries Near embassy

Cite this Entry

“Embassy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embassy. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.

Kids Definition

embassy

noun
em·​bas·​sy ˈem-bə-sē How to pronounce embassy (audio)
plural embassies
1
: a group of representatives headed by an ambassador
2
: the position, role, or business of an ambassador
3
: the residence or office of an ambassador
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!