1427: embassy and ambassy Nov 7, 2018

Looking at the history of spelling in English, there is a tendency for spelling to be less consistent in some ways over time. This happens especially when it is difficult to draw certain distinctions, either concerning affixes or other sounds that would otherwise follow a pattern. This is the case with 'embassy' but the related 'ambassador'. Historically the word was written 'ambassy' but as this word changed, 'ambassador' did not change with it. However, even if they do represent different sounds (and this is not necessarily the case) the two do sound very similar before an [m].