Far cry

Attributed to Sir Walter Scott in Rob Roy (1817), “Lochow and the adjacent districts formed the original seat of the Campbells. The expression of ‘a far cry to Lochow’ was proverbial.” Scott’s use of the expression indicates that it was already proverbial but no earlier citation is known. A far cry, as Scott uses it, means a long distance but by the end of the 19th century, it was being used figuratively to mean ‘very different from’. In rural societies like those of the Scottish Highlands, a cry or a shout was a common way of measuring distances.