interrog. and rel. adv., sb. [f. WHERE 15 + ABOUT.]
1. a. interrog. About where? in or near what place, part, situation or position? Now rare: replaced by WHEREABOUTS 1.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15429. Quar abute abide yee nu?
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, IV. xii. My broder and my frend where aboute is thy sore?
c. 1566. J. Alday, trans. Boaystuau’s Theat. World (1531), K iij. My shooe is new,… wel made, but you know not where about it doeth hurt & grieue me.
1665. Phil. Trans., I. 39. His Ephemerides directing whereabout it is to be.
1720. S. Sewall, Diary, 4 Nov. (1882), III. 274. I ask her Whereabout we left off last time.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. iv. One irregularity after another embarrasses things to such a degree that they know not whereabout they are.
c. 1850. Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.), 175. I desired the owner of the ass to enquire whereabout the house … was.
1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, xviii. She … used to look over to where the ship lay beneath the sea, and wonder whereabout it was.
1908. Kipling, Lett. Trav. (1920), 188. ‘And whereabout do they go?’ I asked. ‘Oh, all about anywheres.’
(b) Contextually, with love: cf. WHERE 10 b (b).
15[?]. in Dunbar’s Poems (S.T.S.), 308. Fane wald I luve, bot quhair abowt? Thair is so many luvaris thairowt, That thair is left no place to me.
† b. rel. About or near which place; in the neighborhood of which. Obs. rare.
1722. Whiston, The. Earth, II. 218. At … Pekin … whereabout probably Noah liv’d immediately before the Deluge.
2. † a. interrog. About or concerning what? on what business or occupation? Obs.
13[?]. Northern Passion (1913), I. 85/2. We wist noght whare obout þou went.
c. 1425. Cast. Persev., 2367, in Macro Plays, 148. Where-a-bowle stonde ȝe al day?
1560. Bible (Geneva), 1 Sam. xxi. 2. Let no man knowe whereabout I send thee.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iii. 107. I must not haue you henceforth, question me, Whether I go: nor reason whereabout.
1598. R. Bernard, trans. Terence, Andria, IV. iii. Whereabout goest thou?
b. rel. About, concerning, or in regard to which. ? Obs.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Operatio, the wark, or that wheraboute a man laboureth.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxvii. § 12. Those things whereabout they differ.
a. 1653. Binning, Serm., Rom. viii. 2, Wks. (1735), 200. That whereabout the Thoughts and Discourses of Men now run.
3. rel. About or around which. ? Obs.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 267/2. Axis,… the axeltree or the axetree where about the wheeles turne.
4. as sb. [from 1.] With possessive or of: The place in or near which a person or thing is; (approximate) position or situation. Now replaced by WHEREABOUTS 3.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. i. 58. For feare Thy very stones prate of my where-about.
1786. Cowper, Lett. to Bagot, Nov., Wks. 1836, II. 263. That … I shall derive considerable advantage … from the alteration made in my whereabout.
1814. Cary, Dante, Parad., XII. 27. A voice That made me seem like needle to the star, In turning to its whereabout.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., III. ix. By degrees, the eye grows accustomed to its new Whereabout.
1861. G. M. Musgrave, By-roads & Battle-Fl., 170. Both armies, indeed, were then within a few days of each other’s whereabout.
