Enwrap

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To cover or enfold an object entirely by wrapping material around it
2. To surround something fully by folding or enclosing it with a covering
3. To encase by enveloping completely with some form of wrapping or covering

Etymology: Anyone who has wrapped a parcel has done the work of "enwrap," since the word is simply "wrap" with an extra prefix. The prefix "en-" means "in" or "into," so the verb originally meant to wrap something in a covering. Middle English speakers used forms such as "enwrappen" and "inwrappen" in exactly this sense, and the spelling with "in-" shows the prefix at its most literal. The word has a close relative in "envelop," and the two are doublets: both descend from the same source but reached English by different routes. "Envelop" came through Old French, which had its own verbs built on the same idea of folding something up in cloth, and this shared ancestry explains why the two words feel so alike. "Enwrap" stayed closer to native English building blocks, combining an English prefix with the English "wrap," and it kept the sense of a physical covering that "envelop" also carries.

Synonyms: wrap, enfold, enclose, surround, cover

Antonyms: unwrap, expose, reveal, uncover, disclose