1630년대, atmosphaera (1670년대 현대형), "지구를 둘러싼 기체 껍질," 현대 라틴어 atmosphaera에서 유래, 그리스어 atmos "증기, 김" (참조 atmo-) + sphaira "구" (참조 sphere)에서 유래. 고대 과학에서 "증기 같은 공기"로, 지구의 일부이자 air (n.1)의 하부 오염물로 간주됨.
Þe ouer partye of þe eyr is pure and clene, clere, esy & softe, ffor mevynge of stormys, of wynde and of wedir may nat reche þerto; and so it perteyneþ to heuenlych kynde. And þe neþir partye is nyʒe to þe spere of watir and of erþe, and is troubly, greet and þicke, corpulent and ful of moyst erþy vapoures, as longiþ to erþy partyes. Þe eyr strecchiþ hym kyndely al aboute fro þe ouer partye of þe erþe and of watir anon to þe spere of fire. [John of Trevisa, translation (late 14c.) of Bartholomew Glanville's "De proprietatibus rerum"]
영어에서 처음 사용된 것은 달과 관련하여, 달은 사실상 대기가 거의 없음.
'Tis Observed, in the Solary Eclipses, that there is some times a great Trepidation about the Body of the Moon, from which we may likewise argue an Atmo-sphaera, since we cannot well conceive what so probable a cause there should be of such an appearance as this, Quod radii Solares a vaporibus Lunam ambientibus fuerint intercisi, that the Sun-beams were broken and refracted by the Vapours that encompassed the Moon. [Rev. John Wilkins, "Discovery of New World or Discourse tending to prove that it probable there may be another World in the Moon," 1638]
"주변의 영향, 정신적 또는 도덕적 환경"이라는 비유적 의미는 약 1800년경에 나타남.
