An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/fern

by Friedrich Kluge

fern, adv., ‘far, distantly, remotely,’ from MidHG. vërrene, vërren, vërne, OHG. vërrana, vërranân, adv., ‘from afar’; the adv. in answer to the question ‘where’? is vërre in MidHG. and vërro in OHG. The adject. form in MidHG. is vërre, in OHG. vër, which are probably derived from the old adv. The remaining Teut. branches have no old orig. adj.; as an adv., however, we meet with Goth. faírra, which is also a prep., ‘distant, away from,’ OIc. fjarre, AS. feor, E. far, OSax. fërr. Besides these words relating to distance in space, OTeut. has also allied terms for distance in time; Goth. fairneis, ‘old, in the preceding year,’ OSax. firn, ‘preceding, passed away (of years),’ OHG. firni, MidHG. virne, ‘old’ (see under Firnewein); akin also to OIc. forn, ‘old,’ MidHG. vorn, ‘earlier, formerly,’ with a differently graded vowel. To the Teut. stem fer-, for- from pre-Teut. per, pṛ, are allied Gr. πέρᾶ, ‘further,’ πέρᾶν, ‘on the other side,’ Armen. heri, ‘distant,’ Sans. pára-s, ‘more, remote,’ paramás, ‘remotest, highest,’ parás, adv., ‘far of, in the distance.’ The cognates of Aryan per- have too great and involved a ramification to be fully explained here. See firn.