environ

Meanings

1. In the neighbourhood; around.
2. Almost, nearly.

1. To encircle or surround (someone or something).
2. To encircle or surround (someone or something) so as to attack from all sides; to beset.
3. To encircle or surround (a heraldic element such as a charge or escutcheon (shield)).
4. To cover, enclose, or envelop (someone or something).
5. Followed by from: to hide or shield (someone or something).
6. Of a person: to be positioned or stationed around (someone or something) to attend to or protect them.
7. Of a situation or state of affairs, especially danger or trouble: to happen to and affect (someone or something).
8. To amount to or encompass (a space).
9. To travel completely around (a place or thing); to circumnavigate.

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

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)

Translations