Etymology

encirclement

E1N1C3I1R1C3L1E1M3E1N1T1

Today it means: The act of encircling or the state of being encircled Full definition →

English encircle ← Middle English circle ← Old French cercle
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁én
  2. Proto-Italic*en
  3. Proto-Italic*en-
  4. Latinin-
  5. Old Frenchen-
  6. Middle Englishen-
  7. Englishen-
  8. Proto-Indo-European*(s)ker-
  9. Ancient Greekκίρκος (kírkos)
  10. Latincircus
  11. Latincirculus
  12. Old Frenchcercle
  13. Middle Englishcircle
  14. Englishcircle
  15. Englishencircle
  16. English todayencirclement

From encircle + -ment.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.