Forum: Bryce


Subject: Word of the Day: Ambient

aprilgem opened this issue on Oct 27, 2004 ยท 4 posts


aprilgem posted Wed, 27 October 2004 at 3:46 AM

A little off-topic, but I thought that some of you who are into ambient lighting and true ambiance might find this interesting. Got it from Merriam-Webster online. ambient AM-bee-unt adjective : existing or present on all sides : encompassing Example sentence: "The general, or ambient, light in each gallery is enhanced by accent lights focused ... on objects or groups of objects." (Grace Glueck, The New York Times Magazine, January 24, l982) Did you know? With biologists exploring the effects of ambient light on plants, acoustics experts trying to control ambient sound, and meteorologists studying ambient pressure, air, or temperature, "ambient" may seem like a technical term, but when it first saw light of day, that all-encompassing adjective was as likely to be used in poetry or philosophy as science. John Milton used it in Paradise Lost, and Alexander Pope wrote of a mountain "whose tow'ring summit ambient clouds conceal'd." Both poets and scientists who use "ambient" owe a debt to the Latin verb "ambire," meaning "to go around," the grandparent of our English word.