Far West N. Amer.
[f. far a. 1 a + west n.1]
A term applied to regions in the Rocky Mountains and along the Pacific coast. Formerly applied to areas lying west of the earliest settlements, i.e. to what is now the Middle West.
| 1830 Deb. Congress U.S. 8 May 920/2 Sir, I am from the West, although not from the ‘far, far West’. 1832 Ibid. Feb. 290 Some of the descendants of illustrious families have gone to the far West. 1835 Southern Lit. Messenger I. 615, I do not believe that the prairies of the ‘far West’ can exhibit more luxuriant fields of corn. 1836 Bytown (Ottawa) Gaz. 13 Oct. 3/2 Being in the ‘far West’ at the time. 1843 ‘R. Carlton’ New Purchase I. 2 In a part of what was, at the time of this journey, the Far West. 1845 Globe (Toronto) 14 Oct. 1/3 The..‘Far-West’..what was formerly known as such is not now even thought of in connexion with that term. 1880 A. A. Hayes New Colorado (1881) vii. 108 Surely this is at variance with the traditions of the Far West. 1890 Howells in Harper's Mag. Nov. 965 The great plains..in the far West. 1948 N.Y. Star 30 June 18/1 The cities of the Midwest, Far West and East. 1968 J. W. Watson N. Amer. (ed. 2) xxi. 683 The Far West..gained from the battle which the Mid-West had fought for the growth of domestic industry. |
Hence Far-Wester, Far Westerner, a settler in, or inhabitant of, the Far West; Far-Western a., of or belonging to the Far West.
| 1843 ‘R. Carlton’ New Purchase I. 112 True honest-hearted far westers unadulterated by foreign or domestic scum. 1844 Bp. S. Wilberforce Hist. Amer. Ch. (1846) 341 The peculiar services of a far-western clergyman. 1845 Knickerbocker XXVI. 283 There is a county in one of our far-western states which numbers just four whigs. 1862 G. C. Strong Cadet Life at West Point 125 The far-Westerner..declared his intention of being a lifelong bushfighter against the Indians. 1874 B. F. Taylor World on Wheels, etc. i. vi. 50 Such touches of border-life give a Far Western train a character of its own. 1887 C. B. George 40 Yrs. on Rail xi. 234 The hearty ‘Wall stranger’, with which a Far Wester greets his neighbor on the train, immediately does away with reserve. 1948 Pacific Discovery May–June 15/1 The cloud that Far Westerners near the coast see most frequently is the advection fog. 1952 A. Huxley Let. 14 Aug. (1969) 651 A series of soliloquies having Far Western places as their source and excuse. |