Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
away (adv., adj., n., intensifier), way (adv., adj., intensifiers)
Way (it is sometimes spelled ’way) is a clipped or aphetic form of away; it has some of the adverbial and intensifier meanings that away has, but its use in these senses is restricted mainly to dialectal, Conversational, and Informal uses: Go away [’way]; I thought he was way off in his estimates. In other adverbial uses, away is never clipped: I went away for the day. And away we go! As a noun, away appears when natives of places where we vacation observe that we’re from away. As an adjective, away is often idiomatic, with special senses in (for example) sports: You’re away (in golf), means “your ball is farther from the hole, and therefore you must play first”; They’re playing three away games in a row (in team sports of all kinds, where home games are on the team’s own field or court, and away games are played on the other team’s); His home run came with two away in the ninth (in baseball, this means that “two were out”). Limit such uses to relevant contexts. See WAY (2).
