# “As far as redheads go” vs. “As redheads go”: How are these two expressions nuanced in meaning?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-far-as-redheads-go-vs-as-redheads-go-how-are-these-two-expressions-nuanced-in-meaning/731439>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 16, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-far-as-redheads-go-vs-as-redheads-go-how-are-these-two-expressions-nuanced-in-meaning/731439 "2015-09-16T03:35:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Melia\_Antiqua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@Melia\_Antiqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melia_Antiqua)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-far-as-redheads-go-vs-as-redheads-go-how-are-these-two-expressions-nuanced-in-meaning/731439/1 "2015-09-16T03:35:54Z")

</div>

I’m wondering if these two expressions are somehow nuanced in meaning? Any difference at all? Thank you very much.  
Woman: I don’t know. **As far as redheads go** , I’d say he’s about a hundred times cooler.

Woman: I don’t know. **As redheads go** , I’d say he’s about a hundred times cooler.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-far-as-redheads-go-vs-as-redheads-go-how-are-these-two-expressions-nuanced-in-meaning/731439/2 "2015-09-16T13:42:34Z")

</div>

Neither one looks right to me, but they look wrong for different reasons, and the second looks less wrong.

In the first one, the statement “as far as redheads go” should be followed by a statement about redheads in general, not by a statement about some individual “he”.

In the second one, he’s being compared to the whole range of redheads, and so saying that he’s a hundred times cooler is a bit off: He’s a hundred times cooler than which redhead? A better sentence would be something like “As redheads go, he’s very cool”, or if you wanted to get quantitative, “As redheads go, he’s in the top percentile of coolness”.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-far-as-redheads-go-vs-as-redheads-go-how-are-these-two-expressions-nuanced-in-meaning/731439/3 "2015-09-16T14:54:18Z")

</div>

To my ears,

“As far as redheads go” implies that the conversation has been about a whole range of people/topics, but now you are about to focus specifically on redheads, as for example

“As far as redheads go, there is quite likely a higher incidence of sunburn”

but

“As redheads go” implies that there is a shared set of assumptions about redheads, but you’re about to talk about a specific redhead or subset, as for example,  
“As redheads go, she doesn’t have many freckles.”

But just to confuse the issue, there’s a famous line from an Edwardian writer - “She was a good cook, as cooks go; and, as cooks go, she went.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-far-as-redheads-go-vs-as-redheads-go-how-are-these-two-expressions-nuanced-in-meaning/731439/4 "2015-09-16T15:28:47Z")

</div>

I’m with **Patrick** about the implications of the two phrases, but ISTM that it should be “as far as redheads are concerned” instead of “as far as redheads go”.