ɪnˌvaɪərənˈmentl adjective (Environment)
Concerned with the conservation of the
environment (see environment°);
hence,
serving this cause:
not harmful to the environment, environment-friendly.
Etymology: A
sense development of the adjective
which arises
directly from the
use of environment as a kind of
shorthand for 'conservation of the environment'.
History and Usage: The use of environmental in this sense seems to
have begun in the US
towards the
end of the seventies,
when advertisers
first attempted to
climb on to the
bandwagon of concerns
about the environment. In
its more general sense 'to do with the conservation of the environment' it is used in a
great variety of
grammatical constructions;
one of the
recent ones, environmental labelling, is even more elliptical
than most, contracting 'to do with the effects of the
thing labelled on the conservation of the environment' to a
single word. In
local government and
also in the
private sector the
term environmental services (first used as long
ago as the
late sixties) seems to have
become the
fashionable way to
refer to the
upkeep of the local environment,
such as parks and
public gardens,
waste disposal (including the
management of
hazardous wastes), and
street cleaning. See also environmental friendliness (under -friendly).
Right Guard spray deodorant...now directs
itself toward ecological armpits with the
epithet 'new environmental Right Guard'.
American Speech Spring 1983, p. 94 The
Labour Party is planning to
issue a 'Green Bill' later this
year,
setting out its plans for tackling atmospheric pollution, and its proposals for environmental labelling,
litter control, handling hazardous waste, and improving
water quality.
Guardian Weekly 30
July 1989, p. 4 An environmental
meeting in Bergen at which ministers from ECE's
member countries discussed
practical steps to
promote 'sustainable growth', the catch-phrase...for
economic growth that does not
destroy the environment. EuroBusiness
June 1990, p. 64