environ
UK /ɪnˈvaɪɹən/ · US /ɪnˈvaɪ(ə)ɹən/ adverb, verb, noun
Forms environs environing environed environned environest environedst environeth
- adverb In the neighbourhood; around.
- adverb Almost, nearly.
- verb To encircle or surround (someone or something).
- verb (often military) To encircle or surround (someone or something) so as to attack from all sides; to beset.
- verb (heraldry, chiefly passive voice, obsolete) To encircle or surround (a heraldic element such as a charge or escutcheon (shield)).
- verb To cover, enclose, or envelop (someone or something).
- verb Followed by from: to hide or shield (someone or something).
- verb (chiefly passive voice) Of a person: to be positioned or stationed around (someone or something) to attend to or protect them.
- verb (figuratively) Of a situation or state of affairs, especially danger or trouble: to happen to and affect (someone or something).
- verb To amount to or encompass (a space).
- noun (archaic except in the plural, formal, also figuratively) A surrounding area or place (especially of an urban settlement); an environment. “Naples and its environs”
Synonyms
round round about belay beleaguer besiege envelop entwist enwrap surround ring skirt border
Etymology
From Middle English enviroun (“round about in a circle or ring; all around”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman enviroun, environ [and other forms], and Middle French enviroun, environ [and other forms], from Old French environ (“around, surrounding; about, approximately, roughly”) (modern French environ), from en- (prefix meaning ‘in; into’) + viron (“circuit; circumference, compass; country round about”) (though first attested later) (from virer (“to bear, turn, veer”) (either from Latin gȳrō (“to turn in a circle, rotate; to circle, revolve around”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend, curve; an arch, vault”)), or from Latin vibrō (“to hurl, launch; shake; to tremble, vibrate”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyb-, *weyp- (“to shake; to tremble; to sway, swing; to rotate, turn, wind, wrap (around)”))) + -on (augmentative suffix)).
* Catalan enviró, environ (both obsolete)
* Spanish environ (obsolete)
From Middle English envirounen, enviroun (“to surround in a circle or ring, or on the perimeter; to beset, besiege; to cover, enclose, envelop; to provide a setting or surrounding to; to move in a circle; to move around the perimeter; to go, move, or wander about (a place); to fill or pervade (a place); to run all the way through”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman envirouner [and other forms], Middle French environner, and Old French environner (“to arrange in a circle; to circumnavigate, travel around; to traverse, wander around; to encircle, encompass, surround”) [and other forms] (modern French environner), from environ (adverb) (see etymology 1) + -er (suffix forming verbs).
* Catalan environar (obsolete)
* Old French avironer, avironner (Middle French avironer, avironner, Anglo-Norman avironer, aviruner)
* Spanish environar (obsolete)
From Late Middle English invyroun, Middle English enuyroun, enuyrown, from Anglo-Norman enviroun, environ, envirun, and Middle French environ (“circumference; surroundings; (in the plural) boundaries, frontiers”) (chiefly in the plural) (modern French environ), a noun use of Old French environ (adverb): see etymology 1.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To surround; to encompass; to encircle; to hem in; to be round about; to involve or envelop.
- adverb About; around. [Obs.]
Etymology [F. environner, fr. environ about, thereabout; pref. en- (L. in) + OF. viron circle, circuit, fr. OF. & F. virer to turn, LL. virare to turn up and down, topsy-turvy. Cf. Veer.]
Etymology [F.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “environ”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details