environ

English

Etymology

From Middle English [Term?], from Old French enviruner, environner (“to surround”), from environ (“around”), from en (“in”) + viron (“a turn”), from virer (“to turn, veer”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈvaɪ.ɹən/, /ɛnˈvaɪ.ɹən/
• Rhymes: -aɪɹən

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

environ (plural environs)

1. (especially in plural) A surrounding area
   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Chapter 19:

     His spirits, during the last two or three days, though still very unequal, were greatly improved—he grew more and more partial to the house and environs—never spoke of going away without a sigh [...]

Verb

environ (third-person singular simple present environs, present participle environing, simple past and past participle environed)

1. To surround; to encircle.
   • 1673, John Milton, “I did but prompt the age to quit their cloggs”:

     I did but prompt the age to quit their cloggs

     By the known rules of antient libertie,

     When strait a barbarous noise environs me

     Of Owles and Cuckoes, Asses, Apes and Doggs.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book III, canto V, stanza 39:

     Dwelling in a pleasant glade, / With mountains round about environed.

   • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:

     Environed he was with many foes.

   • a. 1631, John Donne, Elegy XII: His Parting from Her

     Environ me with darkness whilst I write.

Related terms

• environment

Translations

To surround; to encircle

• Bulgarian: окръжавам (bg) (okrǎžavam), заобикалям (bg) (zaobikaljam)

• Portuguese: circundar (pt), rodear (pt)

Further reading

• environ in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• environ in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• environ at OneLook Dictionary Search

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French

Etymology

From en (“in”) + viron (“a turn”), from virer (“to turn, veer”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.vi.ʁɔ̃/

• audio

  (file)

Adverb

environ

1. about, close to, around

   un salaire annuel d'environ 7 millions d'euros

   an annual salary of around 7 million euros

Noun

environ m (plural environs)

1. (especially in plural) a surrounding area

Related terms

• environnement

Further reading

• “environ” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• innover

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Middle French

Adverb

environ

1. about; around; roughly
2. around
   • 1488, Jean Dupré, Lancelot du Lac, page 23:

     il regarda environ soy

     he look around him

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Occitan

Adverb

environ

1. about, around, approximately