399: circumference Jan 11, 2016

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What do geometers and environments have in common‽–very little in general, but the word 'circumstance' like words such as 'circumference', is related to 'circle'. 'Circumstance comes from one of two debated words, either Old French, 'circonstance' or directly from the 'Latin', 'circumstantia'. Whichever, the word derives from 'circumstare' in Latin, meaning ‘encircle, encompass’. It is not the individual words, but the sentiment, from where idioms such as "events surrounding..." come to be.

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