ambages Latin · revision 32380

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=ine-pro *h₂eǵ-e/o-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [amˈbaː.ɡeːs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [amˈbaː.d͡ʒes]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''ambāgēs''' ''f'' (genitive ambāgis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+ It is mostly plural; the ablative singular ''ambāge'' is frequent, the nominative singular is found in Tacitus, and the genitive plural is ''ambāgum''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is formed from [[m|la|ambi-|t=around]] and [[m|la|agō|t=to drive, lead]].^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010) De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of [[m|la|agō]], which he traces to [[itc-pro|*ag-e/o-|t=to do, act]] and [[ine-pro|*h₂eǵ-e/o-|t=to drive, lead]], comparing [[grc|ἄγω|tr=ágō|t=to drive, lead]] and [[sa|अजति|tr=ájati|t=drives]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Plautus has it first, in the ''Pseudolus'': “what need is there for me to go round about the matter?”^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is first a roundabout path and its windings: Virgil tells how Daedalus himself unravelled the tricks and windings of the labyrinth.^(OLD 2012) It is used of wandering movement, as in Ovid, and of any long, involved or shifting process, as when Silius writes that antiquity is hidden in the windings of time.^(OLD 2012) Of speech it is circumlocution, digression or evasion, the oldest sense, found in Plautus, and also ambiguity.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) Pliny the Elder uses it of mental confusion about auguries.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of long-winded talk.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil of the windings of the labyrinth.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of uncertainty.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A roundabout path; windings, twists and turns, [[m|en|meander|alt=meanderings]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A wandering to and fro; an intricate or long-drawn-out process.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # [[m|en|circumlocution|alt=Circumlocution]], digression, evasion; obscure or ambiguous speech.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Mental confusion or uncertainty.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[ambāgiōsus]]

+ * [[ambago]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[ambigō]]

+ * [[ambiguus]]

+ * [[ago|alt=agō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}