"far be it" meaning in English

See far be it in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-far be it.ogg
Etymology: 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". Etymology templates: {{uder|en|la|absit}} Latin absit Head templates: {{head|en|verb}} far be it
  1. (idiomatic) A disclaimer stating that something should not come to pass, or that a person would never do or think a certain thing. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: God forbid Translations (Translations): pois se minusta (note: of one's thoughts or intentions) (Finnish), toivotaan, ettei suinkaan... (english: that something should not come to pass) (Finnish), loin de moi l’idée/l’intention de [with-infinitive] (French), lungi da me (Italian), daleko od (Polish), далеко било [Cyrillic] (Serbo-Croatian), daleko bilo [Latin] (Serbo-Croatian), lejos de mí (Spanish)
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        {
          "text": "Samuel 20:20,\nAnd Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy."
        },
        {
          "text": "October 1761, Oliver Cromwell, letter to Mr. Storie\nFar be it that soe much guilt should sticke to your hands, who live in a citye so renowned for the clere shininge light of the Gospell."
        },
        {
          "text": "1969, Eric Idle, \"Marriage Guidance Counsellor\", in Episode 2 of Monty Python's Flying Circus, also in And Now For Something Completely Different\nDeirdre (that's my wife) and I have always been very close companions, and I never particularly anticipated any marital strife. Indeed, the very idea of consulting such a professional marital advisor as yourself has always been of the greatest repugnance to me. Although, (chuckles) far be it from me to impugn the nature of your trade, or ... or profession."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 7:",
          "text": "`Far be it from me,' he said, `to tell you, Weston, that any girl you'd find for me would meet with no danger on this expedition.\"",
          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel:",
          "text": "Shepard: I don't have time for this, Conrad. I'm not here to be a role model.\nConrad Verner: Oh, I see how it is. Commander Shepard doesn't have time for the little people!\nConrad Verner: Far be it for me to get in your way! You go be a hero.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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        "A disclaimer stating that something should not come to pass, or that a person would never do or think a certain thing."
      ],
      "id": "en-far_be_it-en-verb-l3IPwp02",
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        "(idiomatic) A disclaimer stating that something should not come to pass, or that a person would never do or think a certain thing."
      ],
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          "word": "God forbid"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
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        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "note": "of one's thoughts or intentions",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "pois se minusta"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "english": "that something should not come to pass",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "toivotaan, ettei suinkaan..."
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
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          "word": "loin de moi l’idée/l’intention de"
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          "word": "lungi da me"
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          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "daleko od"
        },
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          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "Translations",
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          ],
          "word": "далеко било"
        },
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          "word": "daleko bilo"
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          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "lejos de mí"
        }
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  "word": "far be it"
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          "text": "Samuel 20:20,\nAnd Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy."
        },
        {
          "text": "October 1761, Oliver Cromwell, letter to Mr. Storie\nFar be it that soe much guilt should sticke to your hands, who live in a citye so renowned for the clere shininge light of the Gospell."
        },
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          "text": "1969, Eric Idle, \"Marriage Guidance Counsellor\", in Episode 2 of Monty Python's Flying Circus, also in And Now For Something Completely Different\nDeirdre (that's my wife) and I have always been very close companions, and I never particularly anticipated any marital strife. Indeed, the very idea of consulting such a professional marital advisor as yourself has always been of the greatest repugnance to me. Although, (chuckles) far be it from me to impugn the nature of your trade, or ... or profession."
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          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel:",
          "text": "Shepard: I don't have time for this, Conrad. I'm not here to be a role model.\nConrad Verner: Oh, I see how it is. Commander Shepard doesn't have time for the little people!\nConrad Verner: Far be it for me to get in your way! You go be a hero.",
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    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "note": "of one's thoughts or intentions",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "pois se minusta"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "english": "that something should not come to pass",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "toivotaan, ettei suinkaan..."
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "with-infinitive"
      ],
      "word": "loin de moi l’idée/l’intention de"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "lungi da me"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "daleko od"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "Cyrillic"
      ],
      "word": "далеко било"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "Latin"
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      "word": "daleko bilo"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "lejos de mí"
    }
  ],
  "word": "far be it"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.