ambit
nounUS, UK /ˈæmbɪt/
Etymology
From Late Middle English ambyte, borrowed from Latin ambitus (“circuit; circumference, perimeter; area within a perimeter; ground around a building; cycle, orbit, revolution”) (compare Late Latin ambitus (“neighbourhood; wall of a castle, monastery, or town; cloister; parish boundary”)), from ambīre + -tus (suffix forming verbal nouns from verbs). Ambīre is the present active infinitive of ambiō (“to go around, to skirt; to encircle, surround”), from ambi- (“prefix meaning ‘both, on both sides’”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent- (“front; face; forehead”)) + eō (“to go, move”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”)). The English word is a doublet of ambitus.
The extent of actions, thoughts, or the meaning of words, etc.
- Nickle shrugged his shoulders to indicate the inexpressible ambit of Mr. Bronsky's obvious shortcomings.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:
Broadly The area or sphere of control and influence of something.
- He had invited Destiny to sweep him up in her reaping, by placing himself in the ambit of her scythe; but the sharp reaping-hook had passed him by.1913, Gilbert Parker, “‘The Alpine Fellow’”, in The Judgment House […], uniform edition, Toronto, Ont.: The Copp, Clark Co., →OCLC, book IV, pages 412–413:
Archaic The boundary around a building, town, region, etc.
Obsolete Chiefly in the plural form ambits: the open space surrounding a building, town, etc.; the grounds or precincts of a place.
- Derived terms
- ambit claim
- Related terms
- ambitus