ABOUTLY

Question

Hi! Can anybody explain me what an odd word aboutly means? What for -ly? Is there any diiference between about and aboutly?

Philip · Accepted Answer

I've never come across aboutly, and American Heritage Dictionary doesn't list it.

Ecossais · Answer

I suspect m.b. it's from roundaboutly? It sometimes appears in the net. Probably it's a kind of newspeak

Philip · Answer

ecossaisI suspect m.b. it's from roundaboutly? It sometimes appears in the net. Probably it's a kind of newspeak

Good point! He [obviously a politician] gave a rather roundabout answer to the newswoman's question.

So, he could be known to answer most questions roundaboutly.

We create new words based on what we have on hand and on what we need. This adverb will possibly appear in the next edition of American Heritagbe.

Yankee · Answer

Hi Ecossais

I'd just like to mention that turning an adjective (e.g. "roundabout") into an adverb by adding -ly is not particularly unusual. That is the standard way to form an adverb from an adjective. And it would also come as no surprise to me if people occasionally misspelled the adjective "roundabout" by writing it as two separate words.

Khoff · Answer

Could you give us the context?  Where did you see or hear it?  It doesn't make any sense to me at all, and I'm not convinced it's short for "roundaboutly" (which is not a very common word itself -- usually we would say "in a roundabout way").  I'm wondering if it's a typo  for "absolutely" or "abruptly" or something else.

Ecossais · Answer

Hi!
Thank y'all for answers.
Here is the original. It's a sort of technical instruction

"In the Due date field, enter a day, month, and year for the task group to be completed.
This field is for your information aboutly.
The program does not perform any actions based on this date."
I doubt that it's a typo. Firstly I thought it's a corrupt of about. I tried to google and found that aboutly often appears in the Chinese sites. I've also found 'all aboutly'. Maybe it's from Chinglish? I'm not sure. Though in the text there is a similar sentence 'This field is for your information only.' So in this context most likely aboutly=about. But in other context it can be that aboutly=roundaboutly.
Hmmm...???[:^)] A hard nut to crack...

Clive · Answer

Hi,

Really, it's just plain wrong, either as a typo or as something written by someone with poor English.

The standard phrase is 'This field is for your information only.'

If I were you, I'd forget about this 'roundaboutly', or people will think your English is pretty odd.

Best wishes, Clive

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