As usual — dare I say “as always”? — the big winner for the most misused word I noticed in my reading this year was further to mean farther. Not so usual was that I also noticed farther misused to mean further a couple of times as well. Who says there is nothing new under the sun?
FARTHER / FURTHER
Granted, when to use which of these very similar words is a fuzzy issue to most of us in certain cases, but at the very least, know to use farther whenever you are referring to physical distance. Remember that a house far away from your own is farther away from your house than the house next door is, and the house three down from yours is farther down the street from your house than is the house next to yours.
But farther does not relate to physical distance alone. Farther can have to do with distance in space (farther down the road), time (farther back in time), or divergence (farther from his mind) while further can act as an adverb (we can discuss this further tomorrow), an adjective (he received further education), or a verb (you further your chances of winning the lottery if you buy a ticket).
Note the various uses of farther and further in the following dialogue:
“Let’s discuss this further as we walk farther into the lab,” Tom said. “Time is of the essence, and the farther behind we get in our research, the less chance we have to further our careers at this institution.”
“And here I was thinking that there was nothing farther from your mind than work this weekend,” Susan replied. “I guess I’ll just have to spend a little time getting further acquainted with you if I want to stay a step farther ahead.”
REMEMBER: Farther contains the word far and relates to distance.
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