Away from home or the usual place; in a direction away from something or toward new territory.
From Old English 'a-' (on, in) + 'field' (open land). Originally meant literally in a field, then metaphorically 'away from familiar territory' by the 1500s.
The phrase 'far afield' became common in exploration narratives—it describes venturing into unmapped, unknown territory, and the word preserves the old mental image of 'civilization' as villages and 'adventure' as stepping into fields.
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