In 1997,
Isuzu introduced the new tagline “Go Farther.” Last year, Ford introduced the
new tagline “Go Further.” So now I’m
hopelessly confused (not that I wasn’t already). When should a copywriter use farther vs.
further?
As usual, my muse, Grammar Girl, has the answer: “use 'farther' for physical distance and 'further' for metaphorical, or figurative, distance. It's easy to remember
because 'farther' has the word 'far' in it, and ‘far’ obviously relates to
physical distance.”
I should have been satisfied with GGirl’s
explanation. But since I’m a person perversely driven to go farther, further or both whether I’m driving a Ford or an Isuzu, I couldn’t stop myself from
clicking on the next Google result. At that spiffy little link, Merriam-Webster (a.k.a.
m-w.com) really had its grammar jammer on:
“Farther and further have been used more or less interchangeably
throughout most of their history, but
currently they are showing signs of diverging. As adverbs they continue to be used interchangeably whenever spatial,
temporal, or metaphorical distance is involved.
But where there is no notion of distance, further
is used.”
That’s way too temporal for me,
m-w.com. The farther I get away from that definition the better.
Which brings us to the issue of using the
words “farthermost” and “furthermore.” Oh, please, MaliaMania,” I hear you
begging, “don’t go there, spatially, metaphorically or otherwise.”
