Environment

The word environment has its origins in words and phrases meaning to be present in that which turns around you or which surrounds you.
 
The root of the word environment is Old French viron (a circle, circuit) and virer (to turn; virer is also related to the 12th century Old French verb ‘to veer’). The 14th century Old French verb environer meant to surround, to enclose, encircle. In the 1660s, the Old French word environs (now also an English word) meant the outskirts or surroundings of a place; e.g., the environs of a village or neighbourhood.
 
Around 1600, the word environment appeared in English. Interestingly, at that time, the environment was not something ‘out there’ but rather was (or is) the state of being that you experience when being surrounded by something; i.e., the state of being environed.
 
By 1827, the word environment had come to mean the circumstances, objects, or conditions surrounding a person or thing. The adjective environmental is from 1887. The word environmentalism is from 1917. The use of the word environment in the specialized ecology sense is first recorded in 1956.
 
The etymology suggests that people are both surrounded by the environment and are a part of the environment (i.e., the environment is not just the wilderness out there somewhere separate or distant from us). Each of us is part of the environment and the environment is part of each of us. The environment is not just the broader geography that surrounds us but is also the particular street where we live.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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