approximative VP adverbials

[GEORGE THOMPSON]

   Arnold Zwicky writes: listening to an interview of dolly parton on
Fresh Air today, i caught an (unsurprising) occurrence of the
approximative VP adverbial "about" in her speech - something along
the lines of "I about fainted".

        I frequently find in the newspapers of the 1820s expressions
involving "about" and a participle, used when I would write "just
about to".  Some examples follow: