embassy
Pluralembassies
- 1The official residence of a diplomatic mission, or of an ambassador, in a foreign country.
The ambassador hosted the reception at the embassy that evening.
After the bombing, staff evacuated the embassy and moved to a safer compound.
- 2An organization of officials who permanently represent a sovereign state in another sovereign state, or in dealings with an international organization such as the United Nations.
The embassy lodged a formal protest with the host government.
Several embassies coordinated the evacuation of their citizens during the crisis.
Similarmission
Note
Here an embassy is the people and their work rather than the walls: a body that lodges protests, negotiates and coordinates evacuations. It takes to for the state it represents itself before (the American embassy to France), and in for the city where it sits. Permanence is what separates it from the temporary mission, which is sent for one purpose and then comes home.
- 3The function or duty held by an ambassador, including the responsibilities entrusted to a diplomatic envoy.
The veteran diplomat regarded his embassy as a sacred trust.
Her embassy demanded constant negotiation between two hostile courts.
Similarmission, ambassadorship
Note
Here the word names an office someone holds, and its spelling once matched ambassador: William Temple writes in 1683 that "my Ambassy was declar'd." Embassy is the modern variant of that obsolete ambassy, which came through French, Italian and Occitan words for a mission or message, back to Late Latin ambactia, "service." In this sense it usually takes a possessive (his embassy, my embassy) and names a charge, not a place.
- 4A temporary mission sent to represent a sovereign state, usually for a specific purpose or occasion.
The republic dispatched an embassy to seek an alliance against the invaders.
Two embassies were sent that year, one for trade and one for peace.
Similarmission, delegation, deputation
Note
Shakespeare's The Life of Henry the Fift (1599) has "Then go we in to know his embassy," where the word slides from the mission to the errand it carries: the message the French envoy has come to deliver. That sense recalls the root meaning "message" traced under the ambassador's office. This kind of embassy travels and returns. It is sent to a state, received there, and its work ends.
Less common meaning
- 5A written account or report concerning a diplomatic mission.
The ambassador's embassy, bound in leather, recorded every meeting at the foreign court.
Scholars later studied the embassy for its detailed account of the negotiations.
Note
A word for a kind of written report, now archaic. A Relation of the Late Great Revolution in Siam (1690) lists "Relations, Embassies and Voyages of Siam" side by side, as types of published account. In modern prose, write an account of the embassy or a report of the mission instead. A bare embassy will be read as the mission itself, so keep this sense for quoting or discussing older writing.
Practice
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Origin
A modern variant of the obsolete 'ambassy', from Middle French 'ambassee' (mission, embassy) and Old French 'ambascee', from Old Italian 'ambasciata' and Old Occitan 'ambaissada'. These trace back to Late Latin 'ambactia' (service rendered), ultimately from Gaulish 'ambaxtos' (a dependant or vassal, literally 'one who is sent around') and Proto-Celtic and Proto-Indo-European roots meaning to drive around. It is a doublet of 'ambassade'.