Vehicles equipped to carry sick or injured people to a hospital, usually with medical equipment and trained personnel.
From French 'ambulance' (originally 'hôpital ambulant' meaning 'walking hospital'), derived from Latin 'ambulare' meaning 'to walk.' The term emerged during the Napoleonic Wars for mobile medical units.
The word literally means 'walking hospital'—it comes from 'ambulare' (to walk), the same root as 'amble' and 'ambulatory'! Napoleonic Wars doctors created the first ones to follow armies, and the name stuck.
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