About

Part of speech: preposition, adverb

Pronunciation: /əˈbaʊt/

Definitions

1. concerning or relating to a particular subject or person; approximately; on the point of doing something
2. Referring to a matter or individual ; close to a certain amount or value ; prepared to take an action
3. Connected with a subject or someone ; near or roughly equal in number or size ; just about to commence an activity

Etymology: "About" began as a spatial phrase meaning "outside." Its Old English ancestor, "abūtan" or "onbūtan," was built from "on," meaning "in" or "on," and "būtan," meaning "outside of." That second element was itself a compound of "be," meaning "by," and "ūtan," meaning "outside," so the word literally described being on the outside of something. Its close relative "but," still used in the sense "except" (as in "anything but"), preserves the older exceptional sense of "outside of." From that spatial sense, "about" moved steadily toward meanings of surrounding and circling. A thing that is about you is around you, and from there it was a short step to "near" and then to "concerning," where the subject surrounds the speaker's attention. The adverb and preposition uses developed in parallel, so the same word could describe wandering around a place or talking around a topic. The word is unrelated to "bout," meaning a period of time or a contest, despite the identical spelling and sound pattern in some dialects.

Synonyms: regarding, concerning, around, approximately

Antonyms: nowhere, away