circumambient

English

Etymology

From Latin circum (“around”) + ambiō, from amb- (“both side”) + eō (“go”), literally "go on both sides of".

Adjective

circumambient (comparative more circumambient, superlative most circumambient)

1. Ascribing to all aspects of; encompassing.
2. Surrounding.
   • 1927, H. P. Lovecraft, The Very Old Folk:

     Groups of citizens—broad-browed Roman colonists and coarse-haired Romanised natives, together with obvious hybrids of the two strains, alike clad in cheap woollen togas—and sprinklings of helmeted legionaries and coarse-mantled, black-bearded tribesmen of the circumambient Vascones—all thronged the few paved streets and forum; moved by some vague and ill-defined uneasiness.

   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 517:

     The growling circumambient toils of London around them fadedbefore the calm of these innocent precincts.

Adverb

circumambient (comparative more circumambient, superlative most circumambient)

1. in a circumambient manner

Related terms

circumambience circumambiency circumambulate

circumlocution circumnavigate