Etymologically
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preferire

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Pronunciation

  • /pre.feˈri.re/[1]

Forms

preferire (first-person singular present preferìsco, first-person singular past historic preferìi, past participle preferìto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old Italian also had the form proferire in this sense, and a literary past historic prefèrsi and past participle prefèrto.[2]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin praeferō (“to carry in front; to prefer”), moved into the Italian conjugation in ⟨-ire⟩ (⟨preferisco⟩).[3][4][5][6][1] The Latin verb is formed from prae- (“before”) and ferō (“to carry”), so that it first meant “to carry forward”.[3][7][8] Devoto explains the change of conjugation by crossing with offrire and soffrire.[9] The same Latin verb gave French préférer, recorded from 1355, and Spanish preferir.[4][5]

Latin ferō continues Proto-Italic *fere/o- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry”), the root of Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō) and Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌰𐌽 (bairan).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini, GRADIT and Zingarelli date the verb to the 14th century.[4][5][11] DELI's earliest dated records are from the early 16th century, in Ariosto (1517–1524) and Firenzuola (1518–1525), for “to put one thing before another in judgement or choice”.[3] In his Satire Ariosto speaks of life, “a cui poche o nessuna / cosa ho da preferir” (to which I have few things or none to prefer).[2][12]

Semantic evolution

The verb was slow to win acceptance in Tuscany: at the end of the 16th century Diomede Borghesi wrote that authoritative Tuscan writers did not use it, preferring anteporre and preporre.[3][2] Ariosto's Orlando furioso already has the participle preferito (1516), and Paolo Segneri used preferibile (1686).[3] Preferenza entered in the 17th century, recorded by Florio in 1611, after Medieval Latin praeferentia (1062).[3][4]

Tommaseo found preferisco di fare “not nice” and recommended the construction without di.[12] Preferenziale (1919–1922), in phrases such as voto preferenziale, is a derivative of preferenza for Nocentini and follows French préférentiel for DELI.[4][3]

Timeline

  • 1062 – Medieval Latin praeferentia is recorded.[3]
  • 14th century – First record according to Nocentini and GRADIT.[4][5]
  • 1516 – Ariosto uses preferito.[3]
  • 1517–1524 – Ariosto uses preferire.[3][2]
  • Late 16th century – Diomede Borghesi notes that Tuscan authors avoid the verb.[3]
  • 1611 – Preferenza is recorded by Florio.[3]
  • 1686 – Paolo Segneri uses preferibile.[3]
  • 1922 – Voto preferenziale appears in the Zingarelli dictionary.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To prefer, to like one person or thing better than another: Preferisco il tè al caffè.[5][7][6][1]
  2. With an infinitive or a clause with the subjunctive, to choose to do something rather than something else; to rather: Stasera preferisco restare a casa, Preferirei che venissi tu.[5][7][6][11]
  3. To choose a person or thing over others on a particular occasion: Al concorso hanno preferito un candidato più esperto.[5][7][8]

Word family

  • preferenza
  • preferito
  • preferibile
  • preferenziale
  • preferibilmente

Usage notes

The present takes ⟨-isc-⟩, like ferire: preferisco, preferisci.[7][13][1] The thing put second takes a (preferire il mare alla montagna); with infinitives, the alternative is introduced by piuttosto che.[11][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 14
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  7. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli