Definition of Ambulance

Ambulance: Although you are undoubtedly familiar with
the sound of the siren and the sight of the flashing lights of the ambulance, you may not
necessarily know that the ambulance began as a walking hospital. The word
"ambulance" indeed started off as a walking hospital, "un hopital
ambulant" in French, meaning literally "a walking hospital." The
"hopital ambulant" was devised during the campaigns of Napoleon to bring
medical aid directly to his troops in the field. The original "hopital
ambulant" was a mobile unit designed to carry dressings and drugs to the wounded and
evacuate the injured from the line of battle. The British, knowing a good idea when they
saw it, came up with their own version of the "hopital ambulant." But they
economized by dropping the "hopital" and corrupted "ambulant" to
"ambulance." The French, of course, have for many years railed against the
incursions of Anglo-Saxon words into the pure precincts of the French language.
Nonetheless, they rejected their own "hopital ambulant" and embraced the
English "ambulance." So, in France today you can no longer see a hospital
walking but "ambulances" are very much in evidence.