autour

Autour is a French word used as both a preposition and an adverb with senses centered on proximity, encirclement, and approximation. As a preposition, it combines with de to indicate something surrounding or near a place, or to express an approximate quantity: par exemple, le parc autour du centre (the park around the center), les personnes autour de la table (the people around the table), autour de dix heures (around ten o’clock), ou la population tourne autour de 50 000 habitants (the population is around 50,000).

In addition to spatial and numerical usage, autour is common in time expressions and figures of speech, where it conveys an approximate or vague sense rather than an exact figure. It can also stand in for “around” in informal statements about location, as in Il y avait des enfants autour (There were children around).

A closely related construction is faire le tour de, using the noun tour rather than autour. This fixed expression means to go all the way around something or to survey, examine, or discuss a subject comprehensively: il faut faire le tour de la ville (one must tour around the city) or faire le tour de la question (to go over the issue).

Etymology traces autour to Old French, from a phrase meaning “to a turn,” reflecting its core idea of encircling or surrounding. In modern French, autour remains a versatile term for indicating vicinity, approximate values, and spatial relation. Synonyms include environ and approximately.