A Further Piece

By Ben Yagoda. The Smithean view is supported by the OED, which counsels (in language that has not been revised since 1895): “In standard English the form farther is usually preferred where the word is intended to be the comparative of far, while further is used where the notion of far is altogether absent; there is a large intermediate class of instances in which the choice between the two forms is arbitrary.” Commenting on this passage, H.W. Fowler, author of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926), remarked, “That seems to be too strong a statement, or a statement of what might be a useful differentiation rather than of one actually developed or even developing.” More...