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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab
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To: David Lawrence who wrote (497)1/4/1998 2:20:00 PM
From: Jack Clarke  Read Replies (2) of 4711
 
David,

Trusty old Fowler says that neither further nor farther is related to far. Farther just happens to be a newer variant of further, which in turn comes from "fore".

Nowadays we tend to use "farther" for distances and "further" more abstractly, but there is tremendous overlap, and examples of opposite uses abound. I'll quote Fowler's examples:

1. Comparative of "far": "If you can bear your load no farther, say so." (H. Martineau). BUT "It was not thought safe for the ships to proceed further in the darkness. (Macaulay)

2. No notion of "far": "Down he sat without farther bidding." (Dickens). BUT "I now proceed to some further instances." (DeMorgan.

3. Intermediate: "Punishment cannot act any farther than is as far as the idea of it is present in the mind." (Bentham) BUT "Men who pretend to believe no further than they can see." (Berkeley)

I guess we have to accept that there is not always a hard and fast rule or any one "correct" usage for many words and expressions.

Jack
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