favorer

• favourer

From Middle English favourer, favourere; equivalent to favor +‎ -er.

favorer (plural favorers)

1. One who favors.
   • 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande , volume I, London: for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC, page 1612:

     Of personage hee was tall and mightie […] , in wit & memorie verie perfect: of suche maiestie tempered with humanitie, as best became so noble & high an estate: a great fauorer of learning, as he that was not ignorant of good letters himselfe, and for his greate magnificence and liberalitie, his renoune was spread through the whole world.

   • c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. , London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon,  , published 1609, →OCLC, [Act I, scene 4]:

     […] by the semblance
     Of their white flags display’d, they bring us peace,
     And come to us as favourers, not as foes.

   • 1751 January 22, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, volume 3, number 89, page 161:

     Locke, whom there is no reason to suspect of being a favourer of idleness or libertinism, has advanced, that whoever hopes to employ any part of his time with efficacy and vigour, must allow some of it to pass in trifles.

   • 1845, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni, London: Chapman & Hall, 1853, Dedicatory Epistle, First prefixed to the Edition of 1845, p. vi,

     I love it not the less because it has been little understood, and superficially judged by the common herd. It was not meant for them. I love it not the more, because it has found enthusiastic favourers amongst the Few.

   • 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Beach of Falesá”, in Island Nights' Entertainments‎, London: Cassell, published 1893, page 66:

     I’m no missionary, nor missionary lover; I’m no Kanaka, nor favourer of Kanakas—I’m just a trader; I’m just a common, low-down, God-damned white man and British subject, the sort you would like to wipe your boots on.

• ally, backer, patron, proponent, supporter

• overfar

Compare Italian favorire.

favorer

1. to favour, promote, encourage, prefer, further, support

favorer

1. Alternative form of favourere