Since years I am using "far-fetched" as the english equivalent of the french "farfelu" (my mother tongue is french), never applied to persons, like a mix of "complicated/cranky/scatty", typically in a context of a following type : you have to show a concept, or to make a proof of something, you do one, and the proof is correct, but it is complicated, and there is a "trivial", natural, proof instead. It is not overly complicated though, not complicated enough to make your proof ridiculous at all, but complicated enough to make it slightly funny, knowing the existence of the trivial proof. Then I would say to you : your proof is far-fetched.
For the first time yesterday, I used this expression while talking with a person whose monther-tongue is "american english", and the person felt insulted. After some explications I gave, the person told me that "far afield" was better suited for what I intended – which was something of the type described above.
My question is the following : is "far afield" better suited indeed for what I discussed above ? If not, what would be the best for UK english , for american english ? If yes, is it typically american english or not ?
Thx !
Best Answer
Far-fetched means unlikely. If you say that someone's idea or proof is far-fetched, you are saying that it is unlikely to be correct.
Far afield means distant or wide-ranging. This doesn't quite fit either, at least to my American ear. I expect far afield to describe distance traveled ("I've gone far afield of my home") or a difference between two topics ("I started in biology but now my studies have gone far afield of that, into literature and mathematics").
Perhaps the best adjective I know for this is roundabout, which is an antonym of direct:
I might say: