Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

My dictionary (Riverside Webster's II New College) says 'all-around'
is a variant of 'all-round', which it defines as "capable of doing
many things well".

I have heard both 'all-around' and 'all-round' frequently used in
reference to athletes.

Bill

I've never heard exactly that before. It sounds like a non-native
speaker's attempt to say "an all-round sportsman" or "an all-rounder".

--
Regards
John
for mail: my initials plus a u e
at tpg dot com dot au

All Around Man
   
by probably Bo Carter (Armenter "Bo" Chatmon)
recording of February 20 1936
from Banana in Your Fruit Basket (Yazoo 1064), copyright notice

Now I ain't no butcher, no butcher's son,
I can do your cuttin' 'til the butcher man comes
'Cause I'm a all-around man, oh I'm a all-around man,
I'm a all-around man, I can do most anything that comes to hand

Now I ain't no plumber, no plumber's son,
I can do your screwin' till the plumber man comes
'Cause I'm a all-around man, oh I'm a all-around man,
I'm a all-around man, I can do most anything that comes to hand

Now I ain't no miller, no miller's son,
I can do your grindin' 'til the miller man comes
'Cause I'm a all-around man, oh I'm a all-around man,
I'm a all-around man, I can do most anything that comes to hand

Now I ain't no milkman, no milkman's son,
I can pull your titties 'til the milkman comes
'Cause I'm a all-around man, oh I'm a all-around man,
I'm a all-around man, I can do most anything that comes to hand

Now I ain't no spring-man, no spring-man's son,
I can bounce your springs 'til the spring-man comes
'Cause I'm a all-around man, oh I'm a all-around man,
I'm a all-around man, I can do most anything that comes to hand

Now I ain't no auger-man, no auger-man's son,
I can blow your hole 'til the auger-man comes
'Cause I'm a all-around man, oh I'm a all-around man,
I'm a all-around man, I can do most anything that comes to hand

http://blueslyrics.tripod.com/artistswithsongs/bo_carter_1.htm

Current usage is the only source of information
about current ideas of what is correct.   The problem
here is that this expression has changed in the last
150 years.

E.g. (1) "all-rounder" may have originated in Britain
as a noun meaning someone good at two or more
dissimilar sports (e.g. cricket (summer) and soccer
(winter).  The adjective round or rounded was also
used to describe school curricula, e.g. a rounded
education included both science and literature.

(2)  In everyday speech we hear no difference
between "around" the word "round" uttered with
a hesitation or stammer, cf. a famous recorded
comic turn of Peter Sellers in the 1950s, a formal
interview with a teenage singer ambitious to act
Hamlet and thus become  "an all-around entertainer."
Young and unsure, he hesitates:  so that we
hear no difference between around and round in
his speech.  This pattern is common -- but hinders
rather than establishes "correct usage of 'all around'
in conversational english."

We can distinguish separable patterns:
(a)  all round e.g. "His gaze went all round the room"
(b)  around e.g. "He walked around the room"
but they suggest no rule of universal application.

I heard recently: "You know? He's just an _all around_ good guy",
meaning no matter which aspect of his being you wanted to contemplate,
the impression was "good".