What do you call an ambulance?

Outbac1 said:
Here its an ambulance, truck or rig. It is not a bus.

I worked in the bus business for 16 years,(parts, service, sales). I have driven all types of them, north, south, east, and west and both sides of the border. I can catagorically say an ambulance is NOT a bus.
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tell that to fdny
 
Friends/Family: Ambulance
Around here/familiar people: rig, ambulance
work: seventy-five (75)
at the hospital: one union thirty nine (1U39)
 
I find it odd that some seem to get a touch bitter about calling it a "bus". It's just colloquialism....nothing more. Personally, I think "ambo" sounds a bit "douchy". So there you have it.

Egg
 
eggshen said:
I find it odd that some seem to get a touch bitter about calling it a "bus". It's just colloquialism....nothing more. Personally, I think "ambo" sounds a bit "douchy". So there you have it.

Egg
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"Douchy"? Ambo is a perfectly acceptable way of shortening the word.

Let's consider this from a purely linguistic view:

Our original word is "Ambulance". We want to shorten it to a one- or two-syllable word.

1) We could simply cut off half of the word, and go with "Ambu". However, American-English generally doesn't like words ending with "u", not to mention that the "bu" as in ambulance has an uncharacteristic sound. Am-bew?

2) We could shorten it to one syllable, and go with "Amb". Amb, like as in Lamb. However, this doesn't 'flow' very well with other sentences ("is the amb here yet?") because you have to stress the "amb". Spoken English is generally Iambic in pattern, and this breaks that.

3) We could go for a longer alternative (that's what she said) and try something like "Ambul", but this suffers still from the "bu" mentioned in (1) except that it sounds more like "Bueller." Bueller, Bueller, Bueller.

I can understand that you might not like "Ambo" because the original word isn't "Ambolance", but when you consider the alternatives for shortening it, it is the lesser of evils.

Why, however, do you think it is "douchy"? Ambo, as we all can tell, is a part of the word Rambo, and as we all should know, Rambo is a badass. That, alone, makes Ambo the superior term.

Oh, and Hi, EMTLife. I'll post an introduction thread soon.
 
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dataxpress said:
"Douchy"? Ambo is a perfectly acceptable way of shortening the word.

Let's consider this from a purely linguistic view:

Our original word is "Ambulance". We want to shorten it to a one- or two-syllable word.

1) We could simply cut off half of the word, and go with "Ambu". However, American-English generally doesn't like words ending with "u", not to mention that the "bu" as in ambulance has an uncharacteristic sound. Am-bew?

2) We could shorten it to one syllable, and go with "Amb". Amb, like as in Lamb. However, this doesn't 'flow' very well with other sentences ("is the amb here yet?") because you have to stress the "amb". Spoken English is generally Iambic in pattern, and this breaks that.

3) We could go for a longer alternative (that's what she said) and try something like "Ambul", but this suffers still from the "bu" mentioned in (1) except that it sounds more like "Bueller." Bueller, Bueller, Bueller.

I can understand that you might not like "Ambo" because the original word isn't "Ambolance", but when you consider the alternatives for shortening it, it is the lesser of evils.

Why, however, do you think it is "douchy"? Ambo, as we all can tell, is a part of the word Rambo, and as we all should know, Rambo is a badass. That, alone, makes Ambo the superior term.

Oh, and Hi, EMTLife. I'll post an introduction thread soon.
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Damn, someone got told. Welcome to the boards.
 
I usually call it a rig. Sometimes I will refer to them by their numbers. There is this one guy that I know who if retired FDNY EMS and he always refers to them as buses so I think your right who ever said that they thought that bus was a FDNY thing.
 
dataxpress said:
1) We could simply cut off half of the word, and go with "Ambu". However, American-English generally doesn't like words ending with "u", not to mention that the "bu" as in ambulance has an uncharacteristic sound. Am-bew?
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Besides, "Ambu" has already been taken for a brand of BVMs. Hence the term, Ambu Bag.
 
I knew I had it somewhere at home.. the morning bulletin joke during Katrina was that the vehicle was a "STRAUB": Squad, Truck, Rig, Ambulance, Unit, Bus.... and the northerners still called them "Cars".

Jon
 
eggshen said:
I find it odd that some seem to get a touch bitter about calling it a "bus". It's just colloquialism....nothing more. Personally, I think "ambo" sounds a bit "douchy". So there you have it.

Egg
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Here we are called 'ambo's' (Ambulance Officers), not the ambulance or truck(mind you, our trucks are more vans than trucks)!
As far as the 'bus' thing goes. Does it count if you use a bus to transport the walking wounded from a bus accident to a local hall for further observation and checks? Which is something that was done here in NZ a year ago, when they ended up with 40 odd students in a bus MVA. LOL.

Cheers Enjoynz
 
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Mostly use "car" here, dates back to the bonneville's and caddy's.

Unit is also prevalent.
 
bonedog said:
Mostly use "car" here, dates back to the bonneville's and caddy's.

Unit is also prevalent.
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About 24 years ago as I was entering the whole EMS world we had a "back-line" caddy but I can honestly say I don't think I ever heard it called a car but that time was short lived so It might very well have been.
 
We call ours the 'rig', or 'boo-boo bus' ( some cases boo-boo wagon)
Its funny how these things spread like crazy within the department!
 
emtangie850 said:
We call ours the 'rig', or 'boo-boo bus' ( some cases boo-boo wagon)
Its funny how these things spread like crazy within the department!
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Boo Boo Bus..... I like it, kinda like the Band aid box, that's the neat terms I was hoping to hear. B)
 
Well I have heard everthing from meatwagon to unit to ambulance here in western Md but we usually call it the unit....


FF2
EMT-B
EMS Captain
 
I forgot to mention amb-A-lance!
 
My oldest used to call it the AmBleeance when he was a baby, sort of stuck and a lot of us call it that now. My oldest is now 23 and doesn't call it at all. I think being raised in an EMS household, he has an aversion to anything emergency related.
 
BossyCow said:
My oldest used to call it the AmBleeance when he was a baby, sort of stuck and a lot of us call it that now. My oldest is now 23 and doesn't call it at all. I think being raised in an EMS household, he has an aversion to anything emergency related.
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That is EXACTLY what my 5 year old calls it.. he has a REALLY southern accent, its so cute!!
 
Rig or bus most often
 
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