Embargo

How to spell embargo

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce embargo

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does embargo mean?

1. nounAn official ban on trade or other commercial activity with a particular country.
2. verbTo officially ban trade in goods with a country, or to bar the release of something until a set time.

Embargo in a sentence

• noun

  The government imposed an embargo on arms sales to the region.

• verb

  Several nations agreed to embargo weapons shipments to the conflict zone.

• noun

  The oil embargo pushed fuel prices to record highs.

• verb

  The agency asked reporters to embargo the report until Monday morning.

Where does embargo come from?

Language of origin: Spanish

The word came into English in the late 1500s straight from Spanish, where embargo meant a ban on commerce or the act of impounding ships and goods. The Spanish noun grew from the verb embargar, meaning 'to seize, arrest, or hinder', which traces back through Vulgar Latin imbarricare to the Latin idea of putting something behind a barra, that is, a 'bar' or wooden beam used to block a way. So at its root an embargo is literally a barrier thrown across trade, the same 'bar' image that sits inside the everyday words bar, barrier, and barricade. English first used it for the official detention of ships in port, and only later widened it to any government order halting trade with a country. The single tricky point for spellers is that it keeps its Spanish shape: one m, the em- opening, and a plain -go ending with no second consonant.

How the word is built

• em- (in, from Latin in-)
• bargo (from Spanish embargar, to bar or impound, ultimately from barra, a bar)