circumambient

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English

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Etymology

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

Adjective

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circumambient (comparative more circumambient, superlative most circumambient)

  1. Including all aspects of; encompassing.
  2. Surrounding.
    • 1799–1805 (date written), William Wordsworth, “Book VIII. Retrospect.—Love of Nature Leading to Love of Man.”, in The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet’s Mind; an Autobiographical Poem, London: Edward Moxon, [], published 1850, →OCLC, page 209:
      Thus gaiety and cheerfulness prevail, / Spreading from young to old, from old to young, / And no one seems to want his share.—Immense / Is the recess, the circumambient world / Magnificent, by which they are embraced: []
    • 1915, W. S. Maugham, Of Human Bondage:
      Philip seemed really to be born again. He breathed the circumambient air as though he had never breathed it before, and he took a child's pleasure in all the facts of the world.
    • 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 (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 517:
      The growling circumambient toils of London around them fadedbefore the calm of these innocent precincts.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Adverb

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circumambient (comparative more circumambient, superlative most circumambient)

  1. in a circumambient manner
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