word usage - History of "different from", "different to", "different than"


Somehow I got the impression that "different to" (almost entirely unknown in America) is a locution that originated in the 20th century, and that "different from" is far older. Then I found "different to" in one of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Some (most?) of those were written in the 19th century, and all were written by a native speaker of English who reached adulthood before 1880. "Different than" seems like a far more recent locution, but again I don't know its history. I dislike "different than", but I've noticed that its use makes possible some efficient expressions that might not be possible otherwise (right now I can't remember any).



  • Is "different to" in fact a far newer locution than "different from"? If so, did it originate in the 19th century?

  • Has "different from" become non-standard usage in some places where the vernacular language is English?




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