last night, at my aerobics class, the instructor claimed no one under the age of ....well a certain age, knew the phrase to and fro, and the youngsters only know back and forth--

So what is your experience? (especially the younger posters, please!) Do you move things to and fro? or just back and forth?

if i only had such experience...

I've always used both, but I guess I've always used back and forth more amongst friends and to and fro in writing and poetry.
Interesting point!

you went back and forth on how many times to post that, eh, bonz?

I did what now? [shifty-e]
My computer hiccuped...

I dont see that there is any semantic difference between the two phrases. However, to me, the tone of each phrase and the visual imagery each one conveys are somehow different. 'To and fro' feels like the motion is light, flowing and mellifluous; whereas, 'back and forth' seems automatic, mechanical and methodical. Ballet versus a military drill perhaps!

I think that, while there may be a large area of overlap, there is a subtle difference between the two terms.

Back and forth has an air of reciprocating motion that is entirely lacking in to and fro and to and fro has a sort of randomness that I would never associate with back and forth.

For me, "to and fro" usually connotes physical activity whereas "back and forth" is more likely to refer to mental/intellectual activity.

E.g.,
"I ran to and fro, from one house to the other."

"We debated the question back and forth for hours that night."

To some extent the two phrases are interchangeable, but I think I probably use them metaphorically when applied in a sense other than as stated above.

all of the above.

I've used all, but more chance to use "to and from"... 'fro's' went out in the Mid 70's.

So what is your experience? (especially the younger posters, please!) Do you move things to and fro? ~ of troy

Thank you, of troy, we younger posters rarely get any solititations for our younger thoughts.

I've used all, but more chance to use "to and from"... 'fro's' went out in the Mid 70's. ~ musick

Wrongo, musicko, "fro's" is now retro cool. But today we've dropped the "to" and just say "fro".

Usage: " Like man I was just jivin' and jammin' when my dad dude came in and knocked me "fro". "

Bummer.

mil, you got me laughing my af off...

For me, similar to Rhuby, its pacing to and fro and argueing back and forth. I can't envision those usages being reversed. (Is there a 'hearing' version of the word envision? With the mind's ear.)

Dunno, dxb, I'd pace back and forth. But that's my concept of reciprocating vs. wandering.

Yeah, I wouldn't argue with you. I guess its very marginal really. Kind of 'how many angels on the head of a pin' stuff. Or...was it in Gulliver's Travels where was a war between the big versus little endians, depending on which way up you stood your boiled egg?

I think what we should hope to get out of this discussion is a feeling for the different ways we handle this problem. Maybe there's regional differences, maybe it's entirely personal.

Yes, I'm sorry. I wasn't intending to be dismissive, but I see that the comparisons I picked could seem that way. It was what I saw as a marginal difference between the two expressions that I was trying to articulate. But I did think that either could be used, in the right context, to describe either a reciprocal or a wandering activity with back and forth slightly weighted towards reciprocal.

I wrote some more to develop that theme and the more I wrote the less certain I became of what I thought. In the end I looked into the Concise Oxford and it said: “to and fro = backwards and forwards, repeatedly, between the same places”; “back and forth = to and fro”. So I deleted what I had written and concluded that I know nothing. A conclusion I reach with greater frequency from year to year!

In cricket, the batsmen run between the wickets. They could be said to run to and fro, back and forth or even up and down! I drive to work each day; I could be said to drive to and fro or back and forth. I use several quite different routes and rat-runs however so, unlike the batsmen, there is irregularity within the regular activity – to some extent I wander. Neither of these expressions, it seems, clearly gives that difference without some context.

I use several quite different routes and rat-runs ... there is irregularity within the regular activity ... Neither ... clearly gives that difference without some context.

I think the language is filled with usages that demand some context to understand, as perusal of almost any topic of discussion here can attest. I go back and forth to work. That I do so by different routes does not change in my mind the fact that I would use back and forth and not to and fro to describe what I do. I think it's more a matter of the end points being constant than the pathway.