English
ambassade
Ambassade comes from French ambassade ‘an embassy, diplomatic representation in a…’, and goes back to Old Italian ambasciata.
- Old Italianmodernambasciata‘diplomatic mission’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400ambassade
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600same form‘embassy’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form‘an embassy, diplomatic representation in a foreign state, notably headed by an ambassador’
- Englishearliest quotation 1609same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Old Italianmodernambasciata‘diplomatic mission’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400ambassade
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600same form‘embassy’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form‘an embassy, diplomatic representation in a foreign state, notably headed by an ambassador’
- Englishearliest quotation 1609same form
Earliest quotation: 1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall: “Sir Henry Killigrew, after Ambaſſades and meſſages, and many…”
Linked words
through Old Italian ambasciata ‘diplomatic mission’
Today it means
noun The mission of an ambassador.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old Italian ambasciata / ambassade