Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by pwdisswordfish2 2156 days ago
>Listen, we're not the US Postal Service

Just forward the letters, man! How hard can it be? I bet they’re looking into every one of them anyway…

It’s kind of funny because in many languages the word for ambassador literally derives from “messenger”. Unfortunately not in English, but the words do seem related in Russian, from what I can gather.

Edit: Also, the school’s Russian teacher only translated the headline?! Come on!

2 comments

You got me curious:

From Middle English ambassadore, from Anglo-Norman ambassadeur. From Old Italian ambassatore, ambassadore, from Old Occitan ambaisador (“ambassador”), from Latin ambasiātor, from Latin ambasiātor. From Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌱𐌰𐌷𐍄𐌹 From Proto-Germanic ambahtiją (“service”) Borrowed from Gaulish ambaxtos (“servant”) From Proto-Celtic ambaxtos (“servant”) From ambi- (“around”) +‎ ageti (“to drive”) +‎ *-os.

Yeah, that’s what I had looked up as well. Pretty interesting. I don’t think I’ve come across an etymology that went from Gothic to Latin to English, but I’m hardly an expert.
The English word you're looking for is "Envoy." It's derived from the French word for messenger, and while it's not exactly the same thing as an ambassador, I would struggle to understand the difference.

I guess we just happen not to use that word as the official title of certain government positions.