circumference [LME] A circle’s circumference is the boundary or line that encloses it. The term comes via Old French from Latin circumferentia. Formed from circum, ‘around’, and ferre, ‘to carry’. English words beginning circum- all share some idea of ‘going around’ in their meaning. To circumscribe [LME] comes from Latin circum and scribere ‘to write’, circumspect [LME] literally means ‘looking around’, and circumcise [ME] ‘to cut round’. If you circumvent [LME] a problem (from Latin venire ‘to come’), you find a way round it, and if you circumnavigate [E17th] the world you sail round it. Circumstances [ME] come from Latin cimcumstare, ‘stand around’.