environ

verb

No English definition recorded for this entry.

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ɪnˈvaɪɹən/ / /ɛn-/ / /ɪnˈvaɪ(ə)ɹən/

adv

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)

In the neighbourhood; around.
“Thaboũdant grace of the power deuyne / whiche doth illumyne yͤ world inuyron / Preſerue this audyẽce and cauſe them to inclyne / To charyte this is my petycyon”
“Lord Godfreyes eie three times enuiron goes, / To vievv vvhat count'nance euerie vvarriour beares, […]”
Almost, nearly.

noun

Etymology: From Late Middle English invyroun, Middle English enuyroun, enuyrown, from Anglo-Norman enviroun, environ, envirun, and Middle French environ (“circumference; surroundings; (in the plural) boundaries, frontiers”) (chiefly in the plural) (modern French environ), a noun use of Old French environ (adverb): see etymology 1.

A surrounding area or place (especially of an urban settlement); an environment.
“Naples and its environs”
“I got up to yᵉ Towre, whence we had a prospect towards Duresme, and could see Rippon, part of Lancashire, the famous and fatal Marston Moore, yᵉ Spaws of Knaresborough, and all the environs of that admirable country.”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English envirounen, enviroun (“to surround in a circle or ring, or on the perimeter; to beset, besiege; to cover, enclose, envelop; to provide a setting or surrounding to; to move in a circle; to move around the perimeter; to go, move, or wander about (a place); to fill or pervade (a place); to run all the way through”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman envirouner [and other forms], Middle French environner, and Old French environner (“to arrange in a circle; to circumnavigate, travel around; to traverse, wander around; to encircle, encompass, surround”) [and other forms] (modern French environner), from environ (adverb) (see etymology 1) + -er (suffix forming verbs). Cognates * Catalan environar (obsolete) * Old French avironer, avironner (Middle French avironer, avironner, Anglo-Norman avironer, aviruner) * Spanish environar (obsolete)

To encircle or surround (someone or something).
“For now I ſtand as one vpon a rocke, / Inuirond with a wildernes of ſea, / VVho markes the vvaxing tide, grovv vvaue by vvaue, / Expecting euer vvhen ſome enuious ſurge, / VVill in his briniſh bovvels ſvvallow him.”
“Into that foreſt farre they thence him led, / VVhere vvas their dvvelling, in a pleaſant glade, / VVith mountaines rovvnd about enuironed, / And mightie vvoodes, vvhich did the valley ſhade, […]”
To encircle or surround (someone or something).
“The Erle in good haſte departed thence to Penbroke, whome incontinent Morgan Thomas, by king Edwards commaundement ſo ſtrongly beſieged, and ſo enuironed his Caſtell with a ditche and a trench, that he could not lightly flie or eſcape thence, […]”
“Philopœmen fearinge to be enuironned, and being deſirous to bring his men ſafe home againe, vvho moſt of loue had follovved him: beganne to marche avvay through narrovv buſhy places, him ſelfe being in the rerevvard, and turned oftentimes vpon his enemies, […]”
To encircle or surround (someone or something).
“Az[ure], an annulet environing a barrulet, betw[een] two bars and in chief a cross patty fitchy or.”
To cover, enclose, or envelop (someone or something).
“Farre off a hill and mountaine high they ſpide, / VVhoſe top the cloudes enuiron, cloath and hide; […]”
“Thus like a Nun, not like a Princeſſe borne, / Deſcended from the Royall Henries loynes: / Liue I inuironed in a houſe of ſtone, […]”
Followed by from: to hide or shield (someone or something).
“Lonely her fate was, / Environed from sight / In the house where the gate was / Past finding at night.”
Of a person: to be positioned or stationed around (someone or something) to attend to or protect them.
“[A]ll of them, upon an aſſociation made in the night, agreed to ſide vvith him, vvith aſſurance of ſafe conduct being gladly admitted unto them, environed he vvas vvith a multitude thronged together of vendible or ſale ſouldiors, […]”
“O moſt high God, who keepeſt all things whether high or low, and environeſt every creature; ſancti†fie and bleſs† theſe Creatures of lime and ſand; Through Chriſt our Lord, Amen.”
Of a situation or state of affairs, especially danger or trouble: to happen to and affect (someone or something).
“Ay me! what perils do environ / The Man that meddles with cold Iron!”
“[S]he knew not one person to whose protection she could have recourse, from the inexpressible woes that environed her: […]”
To amount to or encompass (a space).
“Tendaia (vvhich firſt obtained the Philippine title) enuironeth a hundred and ſixtie leagues, from tvvelue to fifteene degrees of latitude: the people Idolatrous, abounding vvith Pepper, Ginger, Gold, and Mynes.”
To travel completely around (a place or thing); to circumnavigate.