English

Verb

præfer ‎(third-person singular simple present præfers, present participle præferring, simple past and past participle præferred)

1. Obsolete spelling of prefer
   • 1573–1580, Gabriel Harvey; quoted in 1965 by Edward John Long Scott, in Letter-book of Gabriel Harvey, A.D. 1573–1580 (Johnson Reprint Corporation), page 7:

     I præfer Tulli before Cæsar in writing Latin; do I therefore disable or disalow Cæsar? And yit I do not so præfer Tulli nether but that Cæsar in sum on point, as in lepore, brevitate or the like mai pas and excel Tulli.

   • 1677 February 20, John Lauder of Fountainhall, Manuscript 548; quoted in 1848 by David Laing, in Historical Notices of Scotish Affairs (T. Constable), page 140:

     This day the Earle of Rothes, Chancellor, (Sir W^m Bruce’s name is in the gift of non-entrie,) gain’d his action againſt my Lord Melvill and his 2^d ſone; the Lords found Melvill’s ſone could not be ſerved air of tailzie to the laſt Countes of Leven during the poſſibility of a 2^d ſone of my Lord Chancelor’s body, (for the devill moſt byde his day,) and præfers Sir W^m Bruce’s gift.

   • 1837, James Balfour and James Maidment, Ancient Heraldic and Antiquarian Tracts, page 14, § 57:

     One discendit of a noble father and mother is euer to be præferred to him quho is onlie procreat of one noble parent, of wich of the two so euer it be. Cod. de Silentiariis lib. 12. L. 1. Menochius Consill. 126. Nobilis, Num. 12. lib. 2.

   • 1869, a publication of the Spenser Society, reprinted in 1967 by Thomas Corser (editor), in Zepheria (Ayer Publishing), page IX:

     Clytia (as Perottus witneſſeth) was a glorious Nimph, and thereof had her name : for κλέος in greeke ſignifieth glorie : and therfore ſhe aſpired to be the loue of Sol him ſelfe, who præferring Leucothoe before her, ſhe was in ſhort ſpace ouergonne with ſuch extreemitie of care, that by compaſſion of the Gods ſhee was tranſformed into a Marigolde; which is ſignificantlie called Heliotropium, becauſe euen nowe after change of forme ſhee ſtill obſerueth the riſing and going downe of hir beloued the ſunne, as Ouid mentioneth,
     

     Illa ſuum, quamuis radice tenetur,
     

     Veritur ad Solem, mutataque ſeruat amorem.