environ
/ɪnˈvaɪ(ə)ɹən/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.17 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
Of a person: to be positioned or stationed around (someone or something) to attend to or protect them.
Obsolete; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "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, […]"
- "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, […]"
- "There is another village called Finland, Fingland and Fennland, which is almost environned with a moss and fenny ground."
- "I did but prompt the age to quit their cloggs / By the knovvn rules of antient libertie, / When ſtrait a barbarous noiſe environs me / Of Ovvles and Cuckoes, Aſſes, Apes and Doggs."
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)
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *gew-, enviroun, environ, gȳrō, vibrō, *weyp-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɪnˈvaɪ(ə)ɹən/
- British English: /ɪnˈvaɪɹən/
Usage
Inflected Forms
environs (present, singular)
environing (participle, present)
environed (participle, past)
environed (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
environed (first person, past)
environned (archaic, first person)
environest (archaic, present)
environed (past, second person)
environedst (archaic, past)
environned (archaic, past)