præferre

præferre (third-person singular simple present præferres, present participle præferring, simple past and past participle præferred)

1. Obsolete spelling of prefer.
   • 1565, Alexander Nowell, A Reproufe, Written by Alexander Nowell, of a Booke Entituled, A Proufe of Certayne Articles in Religion Denied by M. Iuell, Set Furth by Thomas Dorman, Bachiler of Diuinitie, London: Henry Wykes:

     Thirdelie for that the ſimple and vnlearned readers haue often beſt liking in bookes more boldely then learnedly vvritten, and are moſt in daunger to creadite moſt levvde and ſclaunderouſe lyes (in ſo muche that a great many for the commendation of theſe vertues, doo præferre the Scholar before the Maiſter, M. Dorman I meane, before D. Hardinge, ſuche is their iudgement) I haue therfore in anſvvering more at large, applied my ſelfe to such as be of meane vnderſtandinge, to vvhom the guilefull dealinges of the Papiſtes can not vvith breuitie be made manifeſt.

   • 1595, Propositions and Principles of Divinitie, Propounded and Disputed in the Vniversitie of Geneua, by Certaine Students of Divinitie There, under M. Theod. Beza, and M. Anthonie Faius, Professors of Divinitie, page 158:

     In this Conception, which was a beginning in time of that perſonall vniting: the one nature did not not ſimplie aſſume the other: but the perſon of the Sonne, took vpon him the natur of man in that one particular man: and did præferre it vnto the dignitie of the perſon of the Deitie.

   • 1632, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Henry Cripps, page 592:

     Paul commends marriage, yet hee præferres a ſingle life.

   • 1632, The Works of John Milton, Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous, London: A. Millar, published 1753, page iv:

     […]; and prævaile with me to præferre a life, that had at leaſt some credit in it, ſome place given it, before a manner of living much diſregarded and diſcountenanc’t.