preferir

Forms

preferir (first-person singular present prefiero, first-person singular preterite preferí, past participle preferido)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin praeferō (“to carry in front; to prefer”), moved into the third conjugation in ⟨-ir⟩.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb meant “to carry before”, “to present, offer, show” and “to put first, prefer”.^[2][5] It is formed with prae- (“before, in front”) and ferō (“to carry, bear”).^[5][1]

The simple verb comes from *ferō and Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”), the root of Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō), Sanskrit भरति (bhárati) and Old English beran, the ancestor of bear.^[1][6]

The pronominal preferirse (“to offer oneself (to do something)”) was classical from the mid-16th century, and Covarrubias writes it proferirse.^[2] Corominas thinks that from its sense it too comes from the Latin verb rather than prōferō (“to bring forward”), and compares preferir-se in the Catalan romance ⟨Curial⟩.^[2] English has the same Latin verb as prefer.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH has it in a Bible translation of about 1400: qualesquier cosas que al rrey se puedan preferir “whatever things may be put before the king”, and in a Zaragoza ordinance of 1414, where an official is to be preferido “given precedence”.^[7] Corominas's first record is Palencia's vocabulary of 1490: the fatherland dévese aun de preferir al proprio padre, porque es más universal y mucho más durable “should be preferred even to one's own father, because it is more universal and far more lasting”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija equated it with anteponer “to put before”.^[2][8] The word was slow to spread: Corominas finds it in Pero Mejía, Covarrubias and Quevedo, but not in Góngora or the Quijote, perhaps because it could be confused with preferirse “to offer oneself, undertake”, common in Pérez de Hita, Tirso and Calderón.^[2] Calderón also used it for “to surpass”, a sense the Academy keeps.^[2][4]

Autoridades defined it as putting a person or thing before another, and quoted Pero Mejía on pork, which Galen and Averroes la prefieren a las otras carnes.^[9] In the Americas it is first recorded in Venezuela in 1592, of officials taking precedence in their seats.^[10] The derivative preferencia dates from the end of the 17th century.^[3][2]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – the earliest hit in the CDH, in a Bible translation.^[7]
• 1414 – a Zaragoza ordinance has preferido “given precedence”.^[7]
• 1490 – Corominas's first record, in Palencia's vocabulary.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: Preferir lo mesmo que anteponer.^[8]
• 1592 – first record from the Americas, in Venezuela.^[10]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as anteponer, from Latin praeferre.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the senses “give preference” and “exceed”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To prefer, to like or choose one person or thing more than another: Prefiero el té al café.^[4][1]
2. To exceed, surpass.^[4]
3. (pronominal) To boast.^[4][13]

Word family

• preferente
• preferible
• preferencia

Related words

• conferir
• diferir
• inferir
• Latin praeferō
• English prefer

Usage notes

It changes its stem vowel like sentir and hervir: prefiero, prefirió.^[13][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 632
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. preferir
4. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. preferir
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. preferir
8. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. preferir
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 353
10. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. preferir
11. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 1226
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 858
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. preferir