"long from" for "far from"

[Arnold Zwicky]

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"
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>
> 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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