abouten prep Also aboutn, ’bouten [about + -en suff1] archaic Cf withouten prep
About.
1866 Southworth Fortune Seeker 290 seLA [Black], Now, I think if, de bery fust chance you get, you tells de new marster all abouten yourself, he go do you justice. 1869 Daily E. Argus (Portland ME) 10 July 1/7 swIA, The pesky varmints [=wolves] are so thick abouten har, that they acshally come right up to this very door. 1874 Harper’s New Mth. Mag. 49.605 KY, They’re all gourd-heads abouten here; thar ain’t but three men in this beat that can write their names. 1886 Ibid 72.309 eVA [Black], Den presney I so ’straughted ’long o’ it I ax Aunt Haly ’bouten it. 1888 San Antonio Daily Express (TX) 11 July [7]/3 seNY, The oldest “settler” said: “Squire, I hav read this week abouten how fellers in Kingston hav been up in Catskill Mountains lookin’ after frogs. 1891 Arthur’s Home Mag. 61.132 Appalachians, She don’t know the fust formed hate ’bouten Dug Chan’ler ’n his wil’ cat bizzness. 1925 Glasgow Barren Ground 423 VA, I’se gwine out agin about’n sunup. 1931 PMLA 46.1321 sAppalachians, Of is . . [c]orrupted to n in: “Come outn there!” But how explain “aboutn?” 1941 Faulkner Men Working 199 MS, Never knowed a thing abouten it. 1996 in 2004 Montgomery–Hall Dict. Smoky Mt. Engl. 3 wNC, I never knowed a thing abouten it.