ABSTRACT
Environment is a noun of multiple origins—partly a borrowing from French and partly formed, by derivation, within English from environ, an Anglo-Norman transitive verb denoting the act of enclosing and -mentum, the Latin suffix commonly used to form nouns from verbs, thereby denoting the result or product of the action of the verb. Environment is the area surrounding a place or thing; the environs, surroundings, or physical context and thus setting. Environment has other meanings in the study of religion. The most recent and by far most prominent use of environment in the study of religion is to connect the field to discourses associated with environmentalism.
