Encasing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Surrounding or enclosing an object completely within another material or structure for protection or containment
2. Covering something fully so that it is enclosed inside a protective shell or layer
3. Enveloping an item by wrapping or fitting it inside a case or similar enclosing form

Etymology: "Encasing" is the present participle of "encase", which is built from the prefix en- and the noun "case". The noun has a long road behind it: it descends from a Latin word "capsa", meaning a box or container, which came from the Latin verb "capere", to take or hold. That Latin root passed into Old French as "casse", a box or chest, and then reached Middle English as "case", a container for holding something. English then added the prefix en-, meaning "in" or "into", to make a verb meaning to put something into a case or enclose it in a protective covering. The Latin ancestor of the prefix, "in", is the same element that appears in many English verbs of enclosing, such as "enclose" itself. So the word's meaning stays close to its original sense of holding something inside a container.

Synonyms: enclosing, surrounding