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I work as a software engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ever since starting work, I've noticed people using the word "around" where I'd say "about" or "on" for example:

"I have a question around metrics."

"Can you forward me the thread around developer engagement?"

"The company has been doing a lot of work around diversity and inclusion."

I feel like I never really heard this usage growing up in Pennsylvania, or in university in St. Louis, but it seems pervasive here. I particularly hear it from executives and product managers who work in the tech industry.

My questions are:

  1. Is this common everywhere and I just failed to notice it?
  2. If not, is it regional, industry-specific, or specific to a professional context?

Google ngrams suggests that the phrase "questions around", which is a kind of maker for this usage, has really spiked in the last 20 years.

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  • You apparently led a sheltered life. Figurative uses going back to 1912, if not earlier.
    – Hot Licks
    Mar 19, 2018 at 0:45
  • I wish Hot Licks was mistaken, and I suspect huge numbers, if not the majority of people Ould rather follow herd fashion than think about what they're saying.
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Mar 19, 2018 at 19:47
  • Thanks for the comment Hot Licks, but I don't think the figurative "centers around" is quite the same usage as the quotes I gave. I think WS2's definition of "around" meaning "concerning" is much closer. The older uses of "questions around" I see in the Google N-Grams search are mostly things like "asking questions around the table" which use "around" in the physical sense, so I figured it was worth asking a question (and was not disappointed!)
    – Troy
    Mar 20, 2018 at 5:12

2 Answers 2

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What you are talking about here is OED (Oxford English Dictionary) prepositional sense B11. Its first reference is from 1897.

  1. In reference or relation to; concerning, about.

1897 Punch 29 May 263/3 Essence of Parliament... Useful, but not precisely alluring, debate around Employers' Liability Bill.

1938 Wisconsin Libr. Bull. July 133/1 The rather outstanding feature throughout the> programs was the discussion around the larger problems of rural service.

1970 M. A. Cook Stud. in Econ. Hist. Middle East (1978) 278 (note) The..publication..has stimulated discussion around pre-capitalist economic formations of the non-European type.

1991 B.> Moon Guide National Curriculum (ed. 3) vi. 75 At the heart of the> controversy was the debate around history as ‘content’ versus ‘skills’.

2013 Church Times 20 Sept. 34/4 Her biblical reflections..are thought provoking, and will..act as a stimulus to further biblical enquiry around the themes of justice and hospitality.

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    Well thanks, I guess, for pulling the rug out from under another of my pet peeves.
    – Phil Sweet
    Mar 18, 2018 at 23:59
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I don't find mention of this usage in the Online Etymology Dictionary.

I think the closest usage in the American Heritage Dictionary would be:

  1. In such a way as to have a basis or center in: an economy focused around farming and light industry.

And in the New Oxford American Dictionary:

  1. c. Used to describe a situation in terms of the relation between people, actions, or events: It was he who was attacking her, not the other way around.
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