- farther (adj.)
- late 14c., "front;" variant of further (adj.). From 1510s as "additional;" 1560s as "more remote."
- farther (adv.)
- 15c. alteration of Middle English ferther (c. 1300), a variant of further (adv.). There is no historical basis for the notion that farther is of physical distance and further of degree or quality.
