amb-

Forms

amb-, am-, an-^[1][2] amb- stands before vowels (ambiō, ambiguus), am- and an- before consonants (amputō, anceps, anquīrō); a fuller ambi- is found only in glosses and grammarians.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *ambi, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰi (“to, around”).^[1][3] De Vaan suggests that the Indo-European prefix may go back to an instrumental plural of Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- (“front”), the root of ante.^[1] De Vaan doubts the reports in glosses and in Festus of an independent preposition ⟨am⟩ “around”, which may rest on an analysis of the compounds.^[1][4]

Cognate with Umbrian am- and Oscan am- (“around”), Gaulish ambi-, Old Irish imb- (“around”), Ancient Greek ἀμφί (amphí, “on both sides, around”), Sanskrit अभि (abhí, “to, towards”) and Old English ymb (“around”).^[1][5]

Meanings

Prefix

1. around, about, on both sides: ambiō, amplector, anfrāctus.^[5][3][1]

Word family

• ambiō
• ambigō
• ambiguus
• ambāgēs
• amburō
• amputō
• amplector
• amiciō
• anceps
• anquīrō
• anfrāctus
• ancilla

Related words

• ambō

Usage notes

Later compounds such as ambidēns and ambifāriam were formed on ambō “both” beside bidēns and bifāriam, not with the old prefix.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press