favor

Alternative spellings

• favour (Commonwealth, Ireland)

Etymology

From Middle English favour, favor, faver, from Anglo-Norman favour, from mainland Old French favor, from Latin favor (“good will; kindness; partiality”), from faveō (“to be kind to”). Respelled in American English to more closely match its Latin etymon. Compare also Danish favør (“favor”), Irish fabhar (“favor”), from the same Romance source.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfeɪvɚ/

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• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfeɪvə/
• Rhymes: -eɪvə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: fa‧vor

Noun

favor (countable and uncountable, plural favors) (American, alternative in Canada)

1. A kind or helpful deed; an instance of voluntarily assisting (someone).

   He did me a favor when he took the time to drive me home.

2. Goodwill; benevolent regard.

   She enjoyed the queen's favor.

   to fall out of favor

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

     Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. […] She looked around expectantly, and recognizing Mrs. Cooke's maid […] Miss Thorn greeted her with a smile which greatly prepossessed us in her favor.

3. A small gift; a party favor.

   At the holiday dinner, the hosts had set a favor by each place setting.

   A marriage favour is a bunch or knot of white ribbons or white flowers worn at a wedding.

   • ca. 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV, sc. 7:

     Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me and

     stick it in thy cap: when Alencon and myself were

     down together, I plucked this glove from his helm […]

   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackery, Vanity Fair, Chapter 22:

     The rain drove into the bride and bridegroom's faces as they passed to the chariot. The postilions' favours draggled on their dripping jackets.

4. Mildness or mitigation of punishment; lenity.
   • Jonathan Swift

     I could not discover the lenity and favour of this sentence.

5. The object of regard; person or thing favoured.
   • Milton

     All these his wondrous works, but chiefly man, / His chief delight and favour.

6. (obsolete) Appearance; look; countenance; face.
   • Shakespeare

     This boy is fair, of female favour.

7. (law) Partiality; bias.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bouvier to this entry?)

8. (archaic) A letter, a written communication.

   Your favour of yesterday is received.

9. (obsolete, in the plural) Lovelocks.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)

Verb

favor (third-person singular simple present favors, present participle favoring, simple past and past participle favored) (US, alternative in Canada, transitive)

1. To look upon fondly; to prefer.
   • And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. —Luke 1:28, King James version, 1611
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess‎:

     Even in an era when individuality in dress is a cult, his clothes were noticeable. He was wearing a hard hat of the low round kind favoured by hunting men, and with it a black duffle-coat lined with white.

   • 2007, Bert Casper, Shadow Upon the Dream: Book 1: Barrûn, page 537:

     […] alone, without having to favor his right, uninjured leg, […]

2. To do a favor [noun sense 1] for; to show beneficence toward.

   Would you favor us with a poetry reading?

3. To treat with care.

   Favoring your sore leg will only injure the other one.

4. (in dialects, including Southern US and Louisiana) To resemble, to look like (another person).
   • 1970, Donald Harington, Lightning Bug:

     ‘Mandy?’ he said, and stared at the girl. ‘Don't favor her too much.’ ‘Favors her dad,’ Latha said, and looked at him.

   • 2012, Rick Bass, A Thousand Deer: Four Generations of Hunting and the Hill Country →ISBN, page 63:

     The way things repeat themselves, across time — not just in the replications and recombinations of family and place ("He favors his momma, she favors her daddy"), but in the accretion of like patterns […]

Noun

favor m, f (plural favors)

1. favour

Etymology

From faveō (“I am well disposed or inclined toward, favor, countentance, befriend”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfa.wor/, [ˈfa.wɔr]

Noun

favor m (genitive favōris); third declension

1. good will, inclination, partiality, favor
2. support

References

• favor in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• favor in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• favor in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• favor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to be favoured by Fortune; to bask in Fortune's smiles: fortunae favore or prospero flatu fortunae uti (vid. sect. VI. 8., note uti...)
    
  • to find favour with some one; to get into their good graces: benevolentiam, favorem, voluntatem alicuius sibi conciliare or colligere (ex aliqua re)
    
  • popular favour; popularity: aura favoris popularis (Liv. 22. 26)
    
  • popular favour; popularity: populi favor, gratia popularis
    
• favor in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Alternative forms

• fa vor (rare)

Etymology

From Old Norse faðir (“father”) + vár (“our”), from Proto-Germanic *fadēr + *unseraz, from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr. Compare Shetlandic fy vor.

Noun

favor

1. (Orkney) our father

Etymology

From Latin favor (“favour; good will”), from faveō (“I favour”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰoweh₁ (“to notice”).

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /fɐˈvoɾ/
• Hyphenation: fa‧vor

Noun

favor m (plural favores)

1. favour (instance of voluntarily assisting someone)
2. favour; goodwill (benevolent regard)

Etymology

From Latin favor, favoris.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /faˈβor/
• Hyphenation: fa‧vor

Noun

favor m (plural favores)

1. favor

Etymology

Compare Italian favore

Noun

favor m (plural favuri)

1. favour