AMBAGIOUS

PRONUNCIATION: (am-BAY-juhs)

MEANING: adjective: Roundabout; circuitous.

ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English ambages (equivocation), taken as a plural and the singular ambage coined from it. From Latin ambages, from ambi- (both, around) + agere (to drive). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ag- (to drive, draw, or move), which also gave us act, agent, agitate, litigate, synagogue, ambassador, agonistes, axiomatic, cogent, incogitant, exigent, exiguous, intransigent. Earliest documented use: 1656.

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AMBIGIOUS - what Shakespeare said Marc Antony said Brutus said Caesar was, sort of

AMEBAGIOUS - transmitted by a simple one-celled organism

SAMBAGIOUS - describing a South American dancer in the throes of ecstasy