When people say "some" and a number, like "some 50,000 people", is there any implication that the number is big or surprising?

Question

I'm a native English speaker, and my whole life I've felt like when people say 'some' plus a number, there is some implication that the number is big or surprising, but I can't find any mention of this in any definition anywhere. Still, I can't shake that feeling.
For example, on the bbc website today:
"Prof John Edmunds said cases were now "increasing exponentially". Some 2,948 UK cases were recorded on Monday, according to government data."
If 'some' just means approximately, why would someone say 'some 2,948' cases? Surely if you were going to give an approximation, you would say 'some 2,950' or 'some 3000'?
I feel like 'some' is used like this quite often. "They were expecting a handful of people to show up, but in the end there was a crowd of some 400 people".
Maybe it's just that there tends to be a correlation between the times when you would use an approximation and the times when there is an unexpectedly large number, but I feel like there's more than that, an actual implication in the word 'some'.
Can anyone help? Thanks!

marcellothearcane · Answer

If you look at the dictionary definition of 'some', it seems the word has a variety of meanings and almost behaves as a contronym.

an unspecified amount or number of.
"I made some money running errands"
used to refer to someone or something that is unknown or unspecified.
"I was talking to some journalist the other day"
(used with a number) approximately.
"some thirty different languages are spoken"
(pronounced stressing ‘some’) a considerable amount or number of.
"he went to some trouble"
(pronounced stressing ‘some’) at least a small amount or number of.
"he liked some music but generally wasn't musical"
(pronounced stressing ‘some’) expressing admiration of something notable.
"that was some goal"

used ironically to express disapproval or disbelief.
"Mr Power gave his stock reply. Some help!"

This answer is a bit of a "because the dictionary says so" which is boring - the dictionary only says so because people say so.
You can search the British National Corpus for some _mc* which searches for 'some', followed by a cardinal number, and find that this usage is quite common in a variety of contexts.

When people say "some" and a number, like "some 50,000 people", is there any implication that the number is big or surprising?

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