"long from" for "far from"

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:39 PM -0600 11/30/08, Gerald Cohen wrote:
>"long from" seems to be a shortening of "a long way from" (as in "it's a
>long way from being over").  And this shortening may have originally
>occurred under the influence of blending:
>"it's far from over" + "it's a long way from being over.'
>
>G. Cohen

Perhaps "long way to go" is a factor as well, given that it fits the
"long from" examples that work and not the ones that Arnold indicates
are unattested.

LH

>
>
>On 11/30/08 1:10 PM, "Arnold Zwicky" <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
>
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>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
>>  Subject:      Re: "long from" for "far from"
>>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------>
>-
>>
>>  On Nov 29, 2008, at 4:11 PM, Alison Murie wrote:
>>
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>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at ATT.NET>
>>>  Subject:      "long from" for "far from"
>>>
>>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  --
>>>
>>>  Quoted in an ad for /The Truth of Power/ from the blurb: "Barber
>>>  believes, against the grain of conventional wisdom, that
>>>   Clinton 'is a man   whose democratic career is long from over.'"
>>>  I don't think I've ever encountered this one before.
>>
>>  quite a few googlehits for "long from over" (though only a fraction of
>>  those for "far from over"), e.g.:
>>
>>     Bumbling Broncos know season is long from over
>>  www.broncosforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4767
>>
>>     Oracle's battle for PeopleSoft long from over
>>  www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-14231022_ITM
>>
>>     Bush says war in Iraq is long from over -- themorningcall.com.
>>  www.topix.com/forum/world/iraq/T19UMLFNJBMV612CN
>>
>>     Jan 8, 2008 ... Paramount and Warner are not the only movie studios
>>  out there, so this fight is long from over IMO.
>>  www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/08/game-over-hd-dvd-to-join-deadpool/
>>
>>  sounds a bit off to me, but it seems to be a minority variant.  "long
>>  from" does seem to be restricted to certain contexts: "long from
>>  finished/complete/done", but no relevant  hits for "long from
>>  satisfied" or "long from happy", for instance.
>>
>>  arnold
>>
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