preposition
- (used to specify a starting point in spatial movement): a train running west from Chicago.
- (used to specify a starting point in an expression of limits): The number of stores will be increased from 25 to 30.
- (used to express removal or separation, as in space, time, or order): two miles from shore; 30 minutes from now; from one page to the next.
- (used to express discrimination or distinction): to be excluded from membership; to differ from one’s father.
- (used to indicate source or origin): to come from the Midwest; to take a pencil from one’s pocket.
- (used to indicate agent or instrumentality): death from starvation.
- (used to indicate cause or reason): From the evidence, he must be guilty.
preposition
- used to indicate the original location, situation, etcfrom Paris to Rome; from behind the bushes; from childhood to adulthood
- in a period of time starting athe lived from 1910 to 1970
- used to indicate the distance between two things or placesa hundred miles from here
- used to indicate a lower amountfrom five to fifty pounds
- showing the model ofpainted from life
- used with the gerund to mark prohibition, restraint, etcnothing prevents him from leaving
- because ofexhausted from his walk
Old English fram “from, since, by, as a result,” originally “forward movement, advancement,” evolving into sense of “movement away,” from Proto-Germanic *fr- (cf. Old Saxon, Old High German, Gothic fram “from, away,” Old Norse fra “from,” fram “forward”), corresponding to PIE *pro (see pro-).