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The preposition is derived from Middle Englishenviroun(“around the outside or perimeter of; all around; about or throughout the extent of”), which is from the adverb.
c.1519 (date written), [John Rastell], A New Iuterlude and a Mery of the Nature of the .IIII. Element; reprinted as John S. Farmer, editor, The Nature of the Four Elements (The Tudor Facsimile Texts), London, Edinburgh: T. C. & E. C. Jack,, 1908, →OCLC, signature Aij:
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
The abundant grace of the power divine / which doth illumine the world environ / Preserve this audience and cause them to incline / To charity; this is my petition
From Middle Englishenvirounen, 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”), from Anglo-Normanenvirouner, Middle Frenchenvironner, and Old Frenchenvironner(“to arrange in a circle; to circumnavigate, travel around; to traverse, wander around; to encircle, encompass, surround”) (modern Frenchenvironner), from environ(adverb) (see etymology 1) + -er(suffix forming verbs).
For novv I ſtand as one vpon a rocke, / Inuirond vvith a vvildernes of ſea, / VVho markes the vvaxing tide, grovv vvaue by vvaue, / Expecting euer when ſome enuious ſurge, / VVill in his briniſh bovvels ſvvallovv 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, […]
c.1610 (date written), John Denton, “Burgh Barony”, in R[ichard] S[aul] Ferguson, editor, An Accompt of the Most Considerable Estates and Families in the County of Cumberland, from the Conquest unto the Beginning of the Reign of K. James [the First], Kendal, Cumbria: T. Wilson, published 1887, →OCLC, page 76:
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.
[W]ent I forth, and found, till then unknovvn, / A cottage, vvhither oft vve ſince repair: / 'Tis perch'd upon the green-hill top, but cloſe / Inviron'd vvith a ring of branching elms / That overhang the thatch, itſelf unſeen, / Peeps at the vale belovv; […]
1858 May 23, Theodore Parker, “ XXX”, in Prayers, Boston, Mass.: Walker, Wise, and Company, published 1862, →OCLC, page 148:
We bless thee for the material world, wherewith thou environest us beneath and about and overhead.
Under none of the accredited ghostly circumstances, and environed by none of the conventional ghostly surroundings, did I first make acquaintance with the house which is the subject of this Christmas piece.
(often military) To encircle or surround (someone or something) so as to attack from all sides; to beset.
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, […]
The King [Cynewulf of Wessex] had an intrigue vvith a young vvoman, vvho lived at Merton in Surrey; vvhither having ſecretly retired, he vvas on a ſudden environed, in the night-time, by Kynehard and his follovvers, and after making a vigorous reſiſtance, vvas murdered, vvith all his attendants.
Where slavery wields her scourge of iron, / Red with mankind's unheeded gore, / And war's mad fiends environ, / Mingling with shrieks a drunken roar, […]
1874, John W[oody] Papworth, “1 ANNULET betw. or within … and in chief …”, in Alfred W. Morant, editor, An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland;, London: T. Richards,, →OCLC, page 4, column 2:
Az[ure], an annulet environing a barrulet, betw[een] two bars and in chief a cross patty fitchy or.
Thus like a Nun, not like a Princeſſe borne, / Deſcended from the Royall Henries loynes: / Liue I inuironed in a houſe of ſtone, […]
a.1631 (date written; published 1635), J[ohn] Donne, “Eleg XIIII. His Parting from Her.”, in Poems, with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: M F for John Marriot,, published 1639, →OCLC, page 95:
Since ſhe muſt goe, and I muſt mourne, come night / Environ me vvith darkneſſe, vvhilſt I vvrite: / Shadovv that hell unto me, vvhich alone / I am to ſuffer vvhen my ſoule is gone.
In vain I ſtretch theſe eyes, environed vvith darkneſs undiſtinguiſhing and void: no object meets my view; no ſound ſalutes mine ear, except the noiſy vvind that vvhiſtles through theſe vaulted caves of death.
1609, Ammianus Marcellinus, “[The XXVI. Booke.] Chapter VIII. Whiles Valens is Farre Removed by Occasion of Warre against the Gothes, Procopius Putting Forward His Intended Businesse, is by Tumultuarie Acclamations Saluted Emperour.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Roman Historie,, London: Adam Jslip, →OCLC, page 293:
[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, […]
1675, Joshua Stopford, “Altars”, in Pagano-papismus: Or, An Exact Parallel Between Rome-pagan, and Rome-Christian, in Their Doctrines and Ceremonies, London: A. Maxwell, for R. Clavel,, →OCLC, page 75:
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.
The † symbol indicates the point at which the bishop makes the sign of the cross.
[T]he admiral in particular, being dangerouſly vvounded, and environed by the guards of the King, on vvhose protection he ſeemed entirely to rely, had no means of eſcape, and might ſurely, before his death, have been convicted of the crimes imputed to him: […]
Thus the party continued to converſe, and, as far as civility vvould permit, to torture each other by mutual boaſts, vvhile they reclined on ſofas in the portico, and vvere environed vvith delights both from nature and art, by vvhich any honeſt minds vvould have been tempered to benevolence, and happy imaginations vvould have been ſoothed into enchantment.
[H]e never ceaſed to experience the fondeſt intereſt in her happineſs, nor the moſt tender compaſſion for the dangers vvith vvhich he ſavv her environed.
1613, Samuel Purchas, “ Of the Philippina’s.”, in Purchas His Pilgrimage. Or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All Ages and Places Discouered, from the Creation vnto this Present., 2nd edition, London: William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone,, published 1614, →OCLC, book V (Of the East-Indies, and of the Seas and Ilands about Asia, with Their Religions), page 535:
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.
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.
[N]ovv, if a hamlet containing thirty houſes, vvith perhaps an environ of an equal number, vvhere labour and the fruits of the earth are the only ſources of vvealth, can ſupport one attorney in this rural magnificence; vvhat an infinite number of lavvyers can a commercial capital ſuſtain?
His spirits, during the last two or three days, though still very unequal, were greatly improved—he grew more and more partial to the house and environs—never spoke of going away without a sigh— […]
1823 April 14, Lord Byron, “Letter DXIV. To the Earl of B**.”, in Thomas Moore, editor, Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: With Notices of His Life,, volume II, London: John Murray,, published 1830, →OCLC, page 640:
I am truly sorry that I cannot accompany you in your ride this morning, owing to a violent pain in my face, arising from a wart to which I by medical advice applied a caustic. Whether I put too much, I do not know, but the consequence is, that not only I have been put to some pain, but the peccant part and its immediate environ are as black as if the printer's devil had marked me for an author.