[f. ENVIRON v. + -MENT. Cf. OF. environnement.]
1. The action of environing; the state of being environed. (With quot. cf. ENVIRON v. 4.)
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 1009. I wot not what circumplexions and environments [orig. περιελεύσεις], to be attributed to such defluxions.
2. concr. That which environs; the objects or the region surrounding anything.
1830. Carlyle, in For. Rev. & Cont. Misc., v. 34. Baireuth, with its kind picturesque environment.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. i. (1871), 56. The whole habitation and environment looked ever trim and gay.
1872. Blackie, Lays Highl., Introd. p. xxxvii. The greenness and comparative culture of the environment of this loch put me in mind of Grasmere.
1867. Froude, Short Stud. (1883), IV. § 2. i. 166. The flame … burnt hot in my own immediate environment.
fig. 1862. ‘Shirley’ (J. Skelton), Nugæ Crit., 278. What is poetic in the story is disengaged from its casual environment.
1870. M. Conway, Earthw. Pilgr., xxv. 300. Every belief has an environment of related beliefs.
b. esp. The conditions under which any person or thing lives or is developed; the sum-total of influences that modify and determine the development of life or character.
1827. Carlyle, Misc., Goethe (1869), 192. In such an element with such an environment of circumstances.
1855. H. Spencer, Princ. Psychol. (1872), I. III. iii. 301. The division of the environment into two halves, soil and air.
1874. Sidgwick, Meth. Ethics, V. 167. The organism is continually adapted to its environment.
1881. Romanes, in Fortn. Rev., Dec., 740. Environment—or the sum total of the external conditions of life.
Hence Environmental a., of or pertaining to environments.
1887. Athenæum, 7 May, 611/3. The external or environmental explanation of evolution.
