environmental (adj.)

c. 1600, "state of being environed" (see environ (v.) + -ment); sense of "the aggregate of the conditions in which a person or thing lives" is by 1827 (used by Carlyle to render German Umgebung); specialized ecology sense first recorded 1956.

suffix forming adjectives from nouns or other adjectives, "of, like, related to, pertaining to," Middle English -al, -el, from French or directly from Latin -alis (see -al (2)).

1923, as a psychological theory (in the nature vs. nurture debate), from environmental + -ism. The ecological sense is from 1972. Related: Environmentalist (n.), 1916 in the psychological sense, 1970 in the ecological sense.