afar

Etymology

It is formed from Middle English of (“from”) + fer (“far”), with the first word reduced in unstressed position,^[2][3][4] together with on fer (“at a distance”);^[4][5][6][3] both became a fer in the 14th century.^[7][3] The adverb is from Old English feor (“far”),^[3][6][7] and the Middle English phrases replaced Old English feorran (“from afar”).^[8] The OED compares Anglo-Norman de luinz, French de loin and Latin a longē.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

From a distance: about 1225, in Sawles Warde, where the adverb stands alone.^[2] Etymonline and Hoad find of feor already in the late 12th century,^[3][4] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1125–75.^[8]

Semantic evolution

At first the word meant "from a distance" and stood alone; that use is now literary and rare, found only with verbs of seeing, and the usual phrase is from afar, recorded from before 1382 in the Wycliffite Bible.^[2][9] From about 1300 it also meant "at or to a great distance, far away",^[2][9] and after 1570 it was often followed by off, as in afar off.^[2][5] Weekley notes that from afar and afar off are therefore sometimes pleonastic, since the a- could already mean "from".^[7] In the 14th century it was spelled afer.^[3][5] Johnson (1755) gave "at a great distance" as its first sense, quoting Shakespeare's Henry IV.^[10] The noun use, a great distance, is mostly found in the phrase from afar.^[11][5]

Timeline

• late 12th century – of feor, from far.^[3][4]
• c. 1225 – from a distance.^[2]
• c. 1300 – at or to a great distance, far away.^[2][9]
• before 1382 – from afar.^[2]
• 1570 – afar off.^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. At, to or from a great distance; far away: Lights glimmered afar across the bay.^[11][5][2]
2. afar off: far away, at a great distance.^[5][2]

Noun

1. A great distance, used chiefly in from afar: Pilgrims came from afar to see the shrine.^[11][5]

Related words

• far

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins