circum-prefix

A Latin adverb and preposition meaning ‘around, round about’, much used to form compounds with verbs, and hence with the nouns and adjectives formed from them, as in circumambulāre to walk about, circumflectĕre to bend round, circumflexus bent round, circumflexio a bending round, etc. Only a few of these survived in Old French (e.g. circoncire to circumcise, circonscrire to circumscribe) and passed thence into English (with circon-, circun-, circum-); but a large number of words adopted from or formed on the Latin, or in accordance with Latin analogies, have arisen in modern French, and still more in English, where the analogy has occasionally been extended by prefixing circum-, as a living element, to native or naturalized verbs; e.g. circumbind, circumflow, circumzoned. A much rarer Latin use (which was however common in Greek with περί) was in parasynthetic derivatives from circum prep. + n., forming adjectives, as in circumpadānus, (from circum Padum) lying round the Po, circummurānus around the walls, circumforāneus around the forum, circumcordiālis Tertullian = περικάρδιος, around the heart. This has proved a fruitful analogy for modern compounds, e.g. circumpolar, circumlittoral, etc.All important words in circum- will be found in their alphabetical places as main-words; but a number of less important or trivial words are collected here, under their respective types.