"Ambience"

       Eating at a place near the movie theater we'd just attended, Connie, David, and I listened to the chatter amplified by hard surfaces everywhere and squinted at the bright nondescriptness about us while downing our ordinary hamburgers, and after my mentioning that this is a non-five star restaurant, I added "except for the ambience."  It got laughs.

        The word is of French root but goes back to Latin.  I wondered if the root is as I suspected.  It is.

       "Ambi" from the Latin means "on all sides" (think of "ambidextrous," both left- and right- handed).  And "ire" means "to go."  "Ambience" is what's "going all around" you, in your surroundings.  It's the mood or feeling of a place.

       Add some nasality to that "m" and "n," and you've heightened your Continental snootiness: [ahn-byahns].