Why this word is great
UMWELT — [Noun] The outer world or environment as perceived by an organism within it. An unadapted borrowing from German Umwelt ("environment, surrounding world"), from um ("around") + Welt ("world"). Unlike "environment" (which refers broadly to physical or social surroundings) or "habitat" (which denotes a natural home), "umwelt" is the world as it is lived—not the forest, but the forest as the fox smells it; not the river, but the river as the trout navigates its currents; not the city, but the city as the pigeon maps its rooftops and ledges. It is the private, sensory universe of each being, a reminder that reality is always refracted through the lens of the perceiver.