prefera

Forms

prefera (third-person singular present preferă, past participle preferat, third-person subjunctive prefere) 1st conjugation^[1] The 19th century also had a fourth-conjugation preferi: Bălcescu writes „Acesta preferi a se lepăda mai bine de domniă” “he preferred rather to give up the throne”.^[2][3] An older present preferez occurs beside prefer: „oricine preferează” “anyone prefers”.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French préférer, a neologism of the 19th century.^{[5][6][3][7][1]} MDA2, DLR and Marcu & Maneca also compare the Latin source of the French verb, Latin praeferō (“to carry before; to prefer”).^[4][2][8] French took it from Latin, which formed it from Latin prae- (“before”) + ferō (“to carry”).^[9][1] Graur lists the verb with oferi, suferi and transfera among the Romanian words of the family of ferō.^[10]

The variant ⟨preferi⟩ was modelled on oferi, suferi and conferi.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Romanian translation of Montesquieu of 1830.^[6] MDA2 dates the verb to Heliade Rădulescu's translation of Byron's Don Juan (1847): „Un biet îngropător de morți ar fi preferit o oală de porter” “a poor gravedigger would have preferred a pot of porter”.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The verb arrived with the sense it has in French, to consider one thing better than another, and it has kept it.^[4][2][9] In its first decades writers sometimes explained it with an older Greek loan: Căpățineanu writes „A prefera (protimisi)”, glossing it with a protimisi.^[2] DLR and MDA2 list a protimisi and the rare a nostimivisi as the obsolete synonyms that the French loan replaced.^[2][4] Damé's dictionary of the 1890s still gave preferi as the main form.^[11] The verb is often followed by a subjunctive: prefer să “I prefer to”.^[12]

Timeline

• 1830 – in a Romanian translation of Montesquieu, the first record.^[6]
• 1847 – ar fi preferit in Heliade Rădulescu's Don Juan.^[4][2]
• 1893-1895 – Damé lists prefera under preferi.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To prefer: to give someone or something priority over another; to consider something better, more valuable or more important.^[5][4][1]
2. To like something better, to have a predilection for it;^[13][1] de preferat “preferable”.^[5][4]

Word family

• preferabil
• preferență
• preferință

Related words

• oferi
• suferi
• conferi

Usage notes

The present is prefer, preferă;^[13][1] preferez and the infinitive preferi are obsolete.^[5][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. prefera
3. ^ a b c Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. prefera
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 515
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 865
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. prefera
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. prefera
8. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. prefera
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
11. ^ a b Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. prefera
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 545
13. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 68