| 词组 | about |
| 释义 | about 1. Vizetelly 1906 noted that about was commonly interchangeable with almost and "formerly, such was condemned." MacCracken & Sandison 1917 still had some doubts about the use, except in connection with numbers. This issue has seldom been mentioned since, though Perrin & Ebbitt 1972 note it, calling about "Standard but mainly Informal." Shaw 1970, however, maintains the old position, recommending that about in the sense of "almost" or "all but" be avoided in formal English. He is more moderate in 1975. If there was no reason to avoid it in 1906, there is no reason to avoid it now. 2. Perrin & Ebbitt 1972 say around is more common than about in reference to physical position; the assertion cannot be confirmed from the Merriam-Webster files. Both are exceedingly common. See around 1. 3. Copperud 1970, Johnson 1982, Bernstein 1958, Bryson 1984, and Janis 1984 point out that about can be used redundantly with figures when other signs of approximation, such as the mention of a span (150 to 200) or the verb estimate, are present. Bernstein quotes a couple of instances from the New York Times. If the evidence in the Merriam-Webster files is representative, this is a minor problem—we have nearly no evidence of its occurrence in edited prose. Perhaps sharp-eyed copy editors catch it regularly, or perhaps the phenomenon occurs in other contexts, such as student writing. Bernstein also mentions the use of a round number as an implicit indication of approximation, but shows no example that involves redundancy. The use of about with round numbers is extremely common, and is for the obvious purpose of indicating that the number is not exact. About is also frequently used with nearly exact and less than round numbers for the same purpose: • The edges of the base of the great pyramid are about 756 feet long; and the lengths of these four edges agree, with an error of only about two-thirds of an inch —School Mathematics Study Group, Geometry, Part 1, 1965 • ... weighs about 172 pounds —Current Biography, February 1966 • ... were producing 108 million net cubic feet of gas and about 1,270 net barrels of crude oil —Annual Report, Atlantic Richfield Co., 1970 4. Bernstein 1958, 1965 objects to the expression "about the head" as "police-blotter lingo." This is perhaps an expression that has gone out of date. Here is a typical example, from a story in the Saturday Evening Post in 1954: • He slapped Mr. Norris heavily about the head several times —Harold H. Martin Bernstein's objection was originally made in 1953. We have little evidence of the use since. At one time it had some facetious, as well as more serious use, but it seems simply to have dropped out of currency now. Copperud 1970 says it is (or was) standard, anyway. 5. Johnson 1982 dislikes the about construction shown in this example: • ... does not know what the Sixties were all about — Garry Wills, Harper's, January 1972 He opines that the construction appeared about two decades earlier and may now be going out of fashion. The expression, usually in the form "what ... is (all) about," seems to have reached a high tide of popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s and is slowly receding, but it is still found from time to time, as in this quotation attributed to actress Shari Belafonte-Harper: • My father has a tough time with what Hollywood's about— US, 2 Jan. 1984 Here are some earlier examples: • What the p.-o.-w. hold-up in Korea was really all about —The Bulletin (Sydney, Australia), 30 Dec. 1953 • Many all over the country know very well what ballet is about —Edwin Denby, in The Dance Encyclopedia, ed. Anatole Chujoy, 1949 • ... Europeans have only the vaguest conception of what American music is about —Virgil Thomson, The Musical Scene, 1947 Reader's Digest 1983 says that the construction is standard; its frequency of use, however, does appear to be declining. 6. For two further current idiomatic uses of about, see at about and not about to. |
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