"long from" for "far from"

[Alison Murie]

On Nov 30, 2008, at 4:01 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "long from" for "far from"
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>
> 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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>>> 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
>>>
~~~~~~~~~
It did occur to me that the temporal rather than spatial aspect of
this usage might have figured in the choice.
AM

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