"long from" for "far from"

[Gerald Cohen]

"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


On 11/30/08 1:10 PM, "Arnold Zwicky" <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU> wrote:

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> Subject:      Re: "long from" for "far from"
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> On Nov 29, 2008, at 4:11 PM, Alison Murie wrote:
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>> 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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