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I already understand and so ask NOT about the definition, which I instead want to burrow into.

as to = With respect to; concerning:

How does the juxtaposition of as + to effect/imply/produce this meaning, which neither word seems to possess alone?

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as to = With respect to; concerning:

As for me, I simply perceive this compound preposition as a shortening of:

As we turn to ...

An example:

As we turn to the subject of manners and courtesy, this verse has much to offer us.

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  • The first reasonable hypothesis I read as to the development of this curious compound preposition.
    – rogermue
    Commented Dec 9, 2014 at 7:31
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It's just one of those things in English; sometimes if you combine two words you get a phrase that has a different meaning than each word by itself. When I think of another example, I'll edit my post.

I would note that as to is okay to use, but it less preferable than concerning or regarding. (One of my coworkers from Romania likes to use "related to" — as in "Related to the initialization code, we need to add something to detect errors" — and it's perfectly understandable, but not natural-sounding, and I haven't got the heart to tell him this.)

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