environment

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪnˈvaɪ.rən.mənt/^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English environ + -ment,^[2][3] from the verb environ “to surround”, which is inherited from Middle English environ, borrowed from Old French environner, from environ (“around”),^[4][2] from en- (“in, around”) and viron (“circuit”), from virer (“to turn”), the source of veer.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of surrounding, the state of being surrounded: 1603 in the OED,^[5] about 1600 in Etymonline,^[2] the early 17th century in Word Origins and the SOED.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word then meant the surroundings of a place, its environs,^[4] the objects or region around something (1830).^[5] The conditions in which a person or thing lives or develops are by 1827, in Carlyle, who used it to render German Umgebung.^[2][5][6] The modern ecological sense, the natural world as affected by human activity, did not develop until the late 19th century in Word Origins' account,^[4] and Etymonline first records the specialized ecology sense in 1956.^[2] In computing an environment is the structure within which a user or program works, from 1961.^[5] Environment-friendly is from 1982.^[5]

Timeline

• 1603 – the state of being surrounded.^[5]
• 1827 – the conditions in which a person lives.^[2][5]
• 1830 – surroundings.^[5]
• 1956 – the ecological sense.^[2]
• 1961 – in computing.^[5]
• 1982 – environment-friendly.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The circumstances or conditions that surround a person or thing; surroundings.
2. The natural world, especially as affected by human activity; the physical conditions that affect the growth and survival of living things.
3. The social and cultural conditions that influence a person or community.
4. (computing) The operating system or set of programs within which an application runs.

Word family

• environmental
• environmentally
• microenvironment

Related words

• environ
• environmentalist
• environmentalism
• environs
• veer

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster