ambi-

Note: Outcomes of the Indo-European etymon are irregular: the nasal component has been lost in Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian, and the Germanic outcome has lost the initial syllable entirely—for details of the latter see both entry 3. The -t- of the initial element *h₂(e)nt- is preserved only in Tocharian B if this etymology is correct. For the original proposal see Jay Jasanoff, "Gr. Ἄμφω, lat. ambō, et le mot indo-européen pour 'l'un et l'autre'," Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, tome 71 (1976), fascicule 1, pp. 123-31. — Latin ambi- in the sense "both" was a late innovation, apparently not attested before apuleius, who uses the word ambifāriam "in a way that places an opponent in a dilemma," based on bifāriam "in two places/ways." Words such as ambidens "having teeth on both upper and lower jaws," cited by the grammarian Sextus Pompeius Festus, are probably artificial creations. In part ambi- is modeled on Greek amphi- "on both sides" (see amphi-), in part it is based on a reinterpretation of the prefix amb- "around, circling" (see ambient entry 1)