far be it from
2
9.2
- idiom
- Formal
:
lejos de
- "Far be it from me to stand in the way of great art."
- Far be it from me to stand
Examples
-
Far be it from me to try to please everybody.
Blog text (20) -
- Far be it from me to contradict Louisa.
-
Well, far be it from me.
-
But far be it from me, your father, to pass comment.
Fiction book (1992) -
Far be it from me to encourage the details such as the above.
Blog text (20) -
Far be it from us to pass judgment on the kids.
Blog text (15) -
Far be it from me to place blame on any single individual when it comes to wins and losses.
Blog text (15) -
But far be it from me to utter one word when it comes to your own father's peace of mind and happiness.
Fiction book (1992) -
Far be it from me to stir up controversy, but is there a more telling comment on the decline of American power and influence in pro tennis?
Blog text (23) -
Hey, far be it from me to pressure you into anything.
Synonyms
1
6.7
To never do something, no matter what happens
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'far be it from' is an idiomatic, somewhat archaic concessive formula whose meaning ('I certainly would not want or intend to...') cannot be derived from the literal senses of 'far', 'be', 'it', and 'from'. The syntax uses an expletive 'it' and a reversed/clausal structure unfamiliar to B1 learners, so knowing the individual words would not allow a learner to predict the phrase's pragmatic denial function.
Etymology
Far be it from comes from an old way of speaking that used the words far, be, it, from to mean 'may the thing be far from me', when someone wanted to show they did not want or intend to do something. That's why today far be it from is used to politely say you do not want to do something or to avoid blame.