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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Lawrence who wrote (497)	1/4/1998 2:20:00 PM
From: Jack Clarke	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to 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

To: David Lawrence who wrote (497)	1/4/1998 3:43:00 PM
From: Bill Ulrich	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4711

Hi David, re: Z before S except after C Growing up in Texas certainly did not inhibit your English skills.<g> Speaking of geography and environment, a previous employer of mine was a stuffy Brit, and working for him had a curious effect on my writing. I often find myself sprinkling posts with &#145Ss&#146 in place of &#145Zs&#146 as in specialise and realise. How did the original transition take place? We really didn&#146t just jump off the Mayflower and proceed to re-write all the English books, did we? Who was the first writer to say, &#147Eureka, I'll use a Z, instead!&#148? &#133damn subversive colonists! -MrB