déférer

From Latin deferre.

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déférer

1. to remand
2. (archaic) to grant; to bestow; to confer (upon); to award
   • 1791, National Constituent Assembly, Constitution française, présentée au roi par l'Assemblée nationale, le 3 septembre 1791 [French constitution, presented to the King by the National Assembly on 3 September 1791], Dijon: Imprimerie de P. Causse, page 82:

     C’est leur confiance qui vous défèrent ce titre respectable et pur...

     It is their confidence that gives you this respectable and pure title...

3. to bring (before); to refer (to); to submit
   • 1849 August 9, “Loi du 9 août 1849 sur l'état de siège [Law of 9 August 1849 on State of Siege]”, in Légifrance‎, published 2004-12-21:

     Après la levée de l’état de siège, les tribunaux militaires continuent de connaître des crimes et délits dont la poursuite leur avait été déférée.

     After the lifting of the state of siege, the military tribunals continue to address crimes and offences whose prosecution has been submitted to them.

This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è'), with the latter being used before mute 'e'. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written déférer-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written défèrer-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.

• “déférer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

• fédérer