Definition of the environment, applications

Etymology: the term "environment" has its origins in Greek, Latin and Gaulish. The term environment is polysemous, meaning that it covers many meanings today. This term has undergone an etymological evolution over time, and throughout this evolution, from virer, viron, around, surround, environment, the radical "vir" has always meant the form of "turn" and "rounding", which gave surround, around, contours.

The environment is everything that surrounds us. It is the set of natural and artificial elements within which human life takes place.

The environment would therefore be - at a given moment - the environment in which the individual and/or group evolves, this environment including air, water, soil, their interfaces, natural resources, fauna, flora, fungi, microbes and humans, ecosystems and the biosphere.