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environ

adv
/ɪnˈvaɪɹən/UK/ɪnˈvaɪ(ə)ɹən/US

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)). Cognates * Catalan enviró, environ (both obsolete) * Occitan environ * Spanish environ (obsolete)

  1. derived from *weyp-✻
  2. derived from vibrō — “to hurl, launch; shake; to tremble, vibrate”
  3. derived from *gew-✻ — “to bend, curve; an arch, vault”
  4. derived from gȳrō — “to turn in a circle, rotate; to circle, revolve around”
  5. derived from environ — “around, surrounding; about, approximately, roughly”
  6. derived from enviroun
  7. derived from enviroun
  8. inherited from enviroun — “round about in a circle or ring; all around”

Definitions

  1. In the neighbourhood

    In the neighbourhood; around.

    • Thaboũdant grace of the power deuyne / whiche doth illumyne yͤ world inuyron / Preſerue this audyẽce and cauſe them to inclyne / To charyte this is my petycyon
    • Lord Godfreyes eie three times enuiron goes, / To vievv vvhat count'nance euerie vvarriour beares, […]

  2. Almost, nearly.

  3. To encircle or surround (someone or something).

    • For now I ſtand as one vpon a rocke, / Inuirond with a wildernes of ſea, / VVho markes the vvaxing tide, grovv vvaue by vvaue, / Expecting euer vvhen ſome enuious ſurge, / VVill in his briniſh bovvels ſvvallow him.
    • Into that foreſt farre they thence him led, / VVhere vvas their dvvelling, in a pleaſant glade, / VVith mountaines rovvnd about enuironed, / And mightie vvoodes, vvhich did the valley ſhade, […]
    • There is another village called Finland, Fingland and Fennland, which is almost environned with a moss and fenny ground.
  4. ›+ 7 more definitions

    1. To cover, enclose, or envelop (someone or something).

      • Farre off a hill and mountaine high they ſpide, / VVhoſe top the cloudes enuiron, cloath and hide; […]
      • Thus like a Nun, not like a Princeſſe borne, / Deſcended from the Royall Henries loynes: / Liue I inuironed in a houſe of ſtone, […]
      • Since ſhe muſt goe, and I muſt mourne, come night / Environ me vvith darkneſſe, vvhilſt I vvrite: / Shadovv that hell unto me, vvhich alone / I am to ſuffer vvhen my ſoule is gone.

    2. Followed by from

      Followed by from: to hide or shield (someone or something).

      • Lonely her fate was, / Environed from sight / In the house where the gate was / Past finding at night.

    3. Of a person

      Of a person: to be positioned or stationed around (someone or something) to attend to or protect them.

      • [A]ll of them, upon an aſſociation made in the night, agreed to ſide vvith him, vvith aſſurance of ſafe conduct being gladly admitted unto them, environed he vvas vvith a multitude thronged together of vendible or ſale ſouldiors, […]
      • O moſt high God, who keepeſt all things whether high or low, and environeſt every creature; ſancti†fie and bleſs† theſe Creatures of lime and ſand; Through Chriſt our Lord, Amen.

    4. Of a situation or state of affairs, especially danger or trouble

      Of a situation or state of affairs, especially danger or trouble: to happen to and affect (someone or something).

      • Ay me! what perils do environ / The Man that meddles with cold Iron!
      • [S]he knew not one person to whose protection she could have recourse, from the inexpressible woes that environed her: […]

    5. To amount to or encompass (a space).

      • Tendaia (vvhich firſt obtained the Philippine title) enuironeth a hundred and ſixtie leagues, from tvvelue to fifteene degrees of latitude: the people Idolatrous, abounding vvith Pepper, Ginger, Gold, and Mynes.

    6. To travel completely around (a place or thing)

      To travel completely around (a place or thing); to circumnavigate.

    7. A surrounding area or place (especially of an urban settlement)

      A surrounding area or place (especially of an urban settlement); an environment.

      • Naples and its environs
      • I got up to yᵉ Towre, whence we had a prospect towards Duresme, and could see Rippon, part of Lancashire, the famous and fatal Marston Moore, yᵉ Spaws of Knaresborough, and all the environs of that admirable country.

The neighborhood

Derived

disenviron, environed, environer, environing, unenvironed

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for environ. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA