circumvent

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin circumventus, the past participle of circumveniō (“to come around, surround, beset; to deceive, cheat”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from circum- (“around”) and veniō (“to come”),^[6][2][7] from a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *gʷā- (“to go, come”).^[2][7] The OED and the Shorter Oxford take it from the participial stem of the Latin verb,^[6][8] and the American Heritage Dictionary notes that the Middle English word was a participle meaning “hoodwinked”, from which the Early Modern English verb grew.^[7][9] The Latin verb was already used figuratively for to oppress, assail or cheat,^[2][4] and the English noun circumvention (1424) is older than the verb.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hoodwinked, deceived, as a participle: about 1450, in John Capgrave's Life of St Katherine ("Of these clerkis ȝe shal not be circumuent").^[9][3] As a full verb, to surround by hostile stratagem, Etymonline dates it to the mid 15th century,^[2] Merriam-Webster to 1539^[5] and the OED to 1553, in Richard Eden's translation of Münster's Treatyse of Newe India.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The first verb senses, to surround an enemy by a stratagem so as to cut him off or capture him (1553), and to beset a person with evils, malice or traps (1581), follow the Latin.^[6][7] The sense of getting the better of someone by craft or fraud, outwitting or cheating, appears in 1564,^[6][3] and Johnson (1755) defined the word only as to deceive, cheat, impose upon or delude.^[10] From the same idea of "getting round" came the now usual sense of evading or finding a way around a difficulty, a rule or an obstacle,^[6][8][11] and in the 19th century the literal senses to enclose (1824) and to go round, make the circuit of (1840).^[6][2] The surrounding sense is now used chiefly of hunted animals.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – participle, hoodwinked, deceived.^[9][3]
• 1553 – to surround by hostile stratagem, so as to cut off or capture.^[6] Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1539.^[5]
• 1564 – to get the better of by craft or fraud; to outwit; also to evade a difficulty.^[6][3]
• 1581 – to beset with evils, malice or enmity.^[6]
• 1824 – to encompass or enclose literally.^[6]
• 1840 – to go round, make the circuit of.^[6][2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To find a way around a rule, an obstacle or a difficulty; to evade or bypass: The firm circumvented the ban by selling through a subsidiary.^[11][6][8]
2. To get the better of by cleverness or deceit; to outwit.^[11][6][8]
3. To surround an enemy or a hunted animal so as to cut off its escape or capture it.^[11][5][6]
4. To beset with evils, difficulties or enemies.^[5][6]
5. To go round, or to form a boundary around something; to encircle.^[5][6]

Word family

• circumventer
• circumvention
• circumventive

Related words

• circum-
• convene
• intervene
• prevent
• venue
• advent
• come

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins