Umwelt

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See also: umwelt

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from German Umwelt (environment).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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Umwelt (plural Umwelts or Umwelten)

  1. One's surroundings or environment; the outer world as perceived by organisms within it.
    • 1979, Kyril Bonfiglioli, “After You with the Pistol”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
      It seems that these S-E-A-Values are all about what ethnologists call the Umwelt — the area of alarm around members of the brute creation, such as human beings.
    • 1990 October 7, S. J. Bodio, A. Shilstone, “Pigeon Racing: Homing in on an 'invisible' sport”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 21, number 7, pages 80, 10p:
      Still, a pigeon's worldview -- its Umwelt, ...
    • 2006, Chris Arthur, “Empty Room”, in Southwest Review, volume 91, number 3, pages p295-312, 18p:
      ... a fragment snipped from the perplexing umwelt of Homo sapiens, our innumerable temporary enclosures.
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German

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Etymology

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From um- +‎ Welt. In the biological sense first used by Jakob Johann von Uexküll (1909).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈʊmvɛlt/
  • Audio (Austria):(file)
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

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Umwelt f (genitive Umwelt, plural Umwelten)

  1. environment; milieu; surroundings
    • 1816, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Auf dem Brenner, den 8. September, abends”, in Italienische Reise [Italian Journey]‎[1], volume 1:
      Der Tag ist so lang, das Nachdenken ungestört, und die herrlichen Bilder der Umwelt verdrängen keineswegs den poetischen Sinn, sie rufen ihn vielmehr, von Bewegung und freier Luft begleitet, nur desto schneller hervor.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  2. (biology, ecology) environment; ecosystem
    • 1909, Jakob von Uexküll, Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere, Berlin: J. Springer, page 248:
      Jedes Tier besitzt seine eigene Umwelt, die immer größere Verschiedenheiten mit der unseren aufweist, je weiter es sich in seiner Organisation von uns entfernt.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

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Hyponyms

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Derived terms

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Further reading

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  • Umwelt” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • Umwelt” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • Umwelt” in Duden online
  • Umwelt on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia de