Afar

How to spell afar

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce afar

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does afar mean?

1. adverbAt, to, or from a great distance.

Afar in a sentence

• From afar, the village looked like a cluster of toys.

• Travellers came from afar to attend the annual market.

Where does afar come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grew up entirely within English from native Anglo-Saxon roots. It began as a phrase rather than a single word: the Old English 'feorr' meant 'distant', and writers attached a reduced form of the prefixes 'on' or 'of' in front of it, giving constructions such as 'on feorran' that meant 'from a distance'. Over the Middle English period these merged into one written word, with the prefix worn down to a simple 'a-' that you also see in 'ablaze', 'asleep', and 'aboard'. The modern spelling settled by the time of early modern English, when phrases like 'from afar' became fixed. Because the word is now slightly literary or poetic, it survives largely in set expressions, but every part of it is plain English: just 'a' joined to 'far'.

How the word is built

• a- (on, in; Old English prefix)
• far (distant)