whenabout

English

Alternative forms

• whenabouts

Etymology

when +‎ about

Adverb

whenabout (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Approximately in time.
   • 1907, New Zealand. Parliament. House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates - Volume 139, page 376:

     In the first place, I wish to congratulate the Premier upon the spirit which has inspired him to bring about the change from “colony” to “dominion": and the only defect in the spirit I can really find is that he is premature to the extent of whenabout fifty years.

2. At what approximate time?
   • 1877, Gilbert White, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, page 147:

     Having expected the Rector of Faringdon for some time at my house, I could not so well say whenabout we should endeavour to get to Town ;

   • 1913, James Stalker, How to Read Shakespeare: A Guide for the General Reader, page 221:

     yet the results are only approximate; and in the dates given below no painful accuracy is attempted; it being enough for our purpose to know when or whenabout any drama was produced.

Noun

whenabout (uncountable)

1. The approximate time
   • 1855 March, “Editors' Tableau”, in Genius of the West: A Magazine of Western Literature, volume 4, number 3, page 92:

     AFTER a dogged silence of long months, in which there have been scores of anxious inquiries on the part of our readers, as to his whereabout, whatabout, and whenabout, -and when-to-be-about, - the INDIFFERENT MAN has at length, in the cool indifference of his own good time, 'forked over' the stanzas below, composed on the daguerrotype shado of a sweetheart whom he had never seen.

   • 1919, University of Illinois. High school visitor, Proceedings of the High School Conference, page 358:

     Moreover, two events which are simultaneous to one observer, are not necessarily simultaneous to another observer. The whereabout depends upon the whenabout and the whenabout depends upon the whereabout, not only that, but each depends also on the velocity of an observer.