Etymology

far be it

Today it means: A disclaimer stating that something should not come to pass, or that a person would never do or think a certain thing. Full definition →

Latin absit
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromabsit
  2. English todayfar be it

Calque of Latin absit ("may it be away"), found in the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible as part of the phrase absit hoc a me ("may this [thing] be away from me") at 1 Samuel 2:30, 1 Samuel 22:15 and 2 Samuel 20:20. Wyclif translated the phrase "Fer be this fro me"; the King James Version at 2 Samuel 20:20 has "Far be it from me".

Words from the same roots

Latinabsit all →

absit

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.