Obs. or arch. Forms: 5 ambaxade, 5–9 ambassade; also 5 amba·ssiad(e, 5–6 -ba·ssad, 6 -ba·ssed, -ba·sset; and with e- as embassade, enbassade, etc. [a. Fr. ambassade, 15th c. ambaxade, ad. OSp. ambaxada (mod. em-), cogn. w. Pr. ambaissada, It. ambasciata, OFr. ambassée, (superseded by this form in -ADE: see AMBASSY):—L. *ambactiāta (found in med.L. as ambaxiāta, -asciāta, -assiāta, -asiāta), ppl. derivative of *ambactiāre to go on a mission, f. ambactia, ambaxia (in Salic and Burgundian Laws) ‘charge, office, employment,’ n. of office f. ambactus a servant (? vassal, retainer). The OFr. form ambassée was also adopted in Eng. as AMBASSY, EMBASSY; as was also the med.L. as AMBASSIATE, etc., the forms of which appear to have been quite mixed up with those of the present word, leading to the pronunciation in 5–6 amba·ssiade, amba·ssade, and the spellings in -ad, -ed, -et. But Shakespeare and subseq. writers have ambassa·de or a·mbassade.
The origin and meaning of ambactus have given rise to much discussion. According to Festus ‘Ambactus apud Ennium lingua Gallica servus appellatur’; and Caesar (B.G. VI. 15) applies it to the vassals or retainers of a Gallic chief. Hence Zeuss and Glück identify it with Welsh amaeth, ammaeth, (for *ambaeth) ‘husbandman, tiller of the ground,’ perh. orig. ‘tenant, retainer,’ or even ‘goer about, footman.’ Grimm finds the origin in OHG. ambaht, Goth. andbahts servant, retainer, OE. ambeht, ON. ambótt (cf. AMBOHT), variously explained as f. and against, towards + bak BACK, or *bah to do, or *baht = Skr. bhakta devoted, and assumed to have been adopted in Gallic, or erroneously taken as Gallic by Festus. But the majority of etymologists consider the Teut. word to be an adaptation or refashioning of the Lat. or original Celtic. For the latter, Mahn (Etym. Unt. 145) has also proposed ambi (amb-, amm-, am-) about + Breton aketuz, akeduz ‘busy,’ hence ‘one employed about (his lord).’]
1. The mission or function of an ambassador.
c. 1450. in 3rd Rep. Comm. Hist. MSS. (1872), 280/1. Whan he was at Toures in ambassiad.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of Armes, II. i. 91. Dyde sende … as by manere of ambaxade.
1494. Fabyan, VI. clxxxi. 179. He sent hym in ambassade.
1535. Facsimiles Nat. MSS., II. Monsieur de Brion, Admyral of Fraunce, nowe here in Ambassiade.
1549. Edward VI., Rem., 239. Sir Philip Hobbey, lately cum from his ambassad in Flaundres.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 60 a. Sent by him also in diuers Ambassades.
1727. Wodrow, Corr., III. 321. A sort of ambassade from the Kirk to the King.
1843. Lytton, Last of Bar., III. v. 172. Power to resign the ambassade and trust.
2. A body of persons (or a single person) sent on a mission, or as a deputation, to or from a sovereign; an ambassador and his suite.
c. 1450. in 3rd Rep. Comm. Hist. MSS. (1872), 280/1. As large power as any was gevyn to any ambassad.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of Armes, I. vii. 17. An ambassade cam to hym.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froissart, I. xxvi. 37. The Kyng of Ingland sent his ambassad to the kyng of Scottis.
1576. Gascoigne, Compl. Phil., xvi. He shewde the cause, which thither then Did his ambassade bring.
1709. Strype, Ann. Ref., I. xl. 455. It was thought convenient to stay the ambassade, and to condole only.
β. 1502. Arnold, Chron. (1811), 282. Now was sent an other enbassade to Caleis.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 459. Ye Kings of Assiria, who aunswere Embassades by messengers.
3. The message borne by an ambassador.
1560. J. Daus, Sleidane’s Comm., 139 a. He came to Rome, declareth his Ambassade.
1589. Bp. Cooper, Admon., 224. The state of an ambassade or message.
