Enviros

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A casual or abbreviated way to refer to individuals concerned with the protection or study of the natural world ; can also mean those involved in environmental activism ; sometimes shorthand for environmentalists as a group
2. An informal term used to denote people who focus on ecological issues ; applied to groups active in conservation or environmental advocacy ; frequently serves as a colloquial substitute for environmentalists
3. A slang expression describing anyone engaged in or supportive of efforts related to the environment ; groups who participate in green initiatives ; people who identify with environmentalist causes

Etymology: "Enviros" is the plural of "enviro," which is itself a clipping of "environmentalist." Clipping is the process of shortening a longer word by chopping off its ending, and the result often gets an informal, friendly ring, as with "ad" for "advertisement" or "prof" for "professor." Here the clipped form took the familiar "-o" ending that such shortenings often carry, and the plural "-s" was then added to refer to a group of people. The base word "environmentalist" is built from "environment," which comes from the French "environner," meaning "to surround," plus the suffix "-ist" for a person who advocates or practises something. "Enviros" therefore names a whole group of people who campaign for the natural world, shortened into a single casual word.

Synonyms: environments, surroundings, settings, locales, milieus