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favourite, favorite, n. and a.|ˈfeɪvərɪt|
Also 6 favorit, 7 faforeite, favoret.
[a. OF. favorit (Cotgr.), var. of favori, pa. pple. of favorir to favour; = It., Sp., and Pg. favorito.]
A. n.
1. a. A person or thing regarded with peculiar favour, one preferred above others. Const. of, with.
1583Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 18 This Iuno fearing, and old broyls bluddye recounting, Vsd by her Greeke fauorits. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 175 This new Favorite Of Heav'n, this Man of Clay. 1769Junius Lett. viii. 38 There is another man, who is the favourite of his Country. 1781T. Gilbert Relief Poor 9 Some of these Parish Officers are too apt to gratify themselves and their Favourites. 1796Jane Austen Pride & Prej. (1885) II. ix. 205 Their cousin Jane..was the general favourite. 1802Wordsw. To the Daisy 80 Thou not in vain Art Nature's favorite. 1838Lytton Leila ii. i, The king smiled slightly at the ardour of the favourite of his army. 1839Longfellow Hyperion ii. vii, Of all operas, this was Flemming's favorite. 1876Mozley Univ. Serm. vii. 155 Some persons are..favourites of heaven.
b. spec. in Racing, etc. The competitor or competing animal generally favoured or ‘fancied’, as being most likely to win.
1813Examiner 12 Apr. 240/1 By the 3d round, Carter became the favourite (as it is termed). 1857G. Lawrence Guy. Liv. iv. 26 All the favourites were out of the race early. 1860O. W. Holmes Elsie V. ii. 7 He was a student of mark—first favorite of his year, as they say of the Derby colts.
2. One who stands unduly high in the favour of a prince, etc.; one chosen as an intimate by a superior. Const. † to.
1599Shakes. Much Ado iii. i. 9 Like fauourites, Made proud by Princes. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. i. 237 A Favourite is a Court-diall, whereon all look whilest the King shines on him. 1660T. Ford Theatre of Wits 36 The Duke of Suilli was a Favourite to Henry the 4th. 1671Milton P.R. iv. 95 Committing to a wicked Favourite All publick cares. 1776Gibbon Decl. & F. I. xvii. 443 He bestowed on his favourites the palaces which he had built. 1874Green Short Hist. iv. §5 The favourite [Piers Gaveston] was a fine soldier.
3. A curl or lock of hair hanging loose upon the temple: worn in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. [Cf. F. favoris whiskers.]
1690Songs Costume (Percy Soc.) 189 Frelange, Fontagne, favorite. 1720Gay Espousals 74 in Poems II. 376 Sooner I would..with immodest fav'rites shade my face. 1753Hogarth Anal. Beauty vi. 78 They [curls]..ill deserved the name of ‘favourites’.
†4. = favourer 1. Obs. [perh. apprehended as if f. favour n. + -ite.]
1585–7T. Rogers 39 Art. Pref. (1607) 12 They have prevailed but too much already with their too credulous favourites. 1589R. Harvey Pl. Perc. 12 Neither the breeders nor fauorites of discord. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iv. i. 190 This factious bandying of their Fauourites.
B. adj.
1. a. (Not regarded as an adj. by Johnson, who places quots. 1711 and 1725 under the n.) Regarded with especial favour, liking, or preference; beloved, chosen, favoured above others.
1711Addison Spect. No. 262 ⁋9 Every particular Master in this Art [criticism] has his favourite Passages in an Author. 1725Pope Odyss. i. 402 So Fathers speak..Their sage experience to the fav'rite child. 1747Gray (title), Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat. 1816Byron Ch. Har. iii. xxxix, When Fortune fled her spoiled and favorite child. 1830F. A. Kemble Let. in Record of a Girlhood (1878) II. iii. 106 Portia is my favouritest of all Shakespeare's women. 1870E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. 52 Their favourite anecdotes had all been told.
b. favorite son: U.S. (a) ‘a commendatory title given to George Washington’ (D.A.E.); (b) ‘a man who has endeared himself to a particular country or state, used esp. of a candidate for high office favored by the constituency or political leaders of the state from which he comes’ (D.A.E.). Also transf.
1788R. Platt in F. Moss Amer. Metropolis (1897) I. ii. 266 Motto: Freedom's favorite son. 1789N.Y. Daily Gaz. 1 May 426/1 Washington, the favourite son of liberty, and deliverer of his country. 1806J. Milner in C. L. Lewis Romantic Decatur (1937) viii. 85 That country welcomes your return to her bosom. She hails you as one of her favorite sons. 1835D. Crockett Life Van Buren 198 The views and wishes of your ‘favourite son’. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. II. iii. lxx. 552 A Favourite Son is a politician respected or admired in his own State, but little regarded beyond it. 1962Guardian 27 Nov. 9/1 The rumbustious campaigning of Bavaria's ‘favourite son’, the Federal Minister of Defence, Herr Strauss. 1963Ibid. 22 Jan. 8/6 The Leeds constituency parties are..open-minded about their candidates, not reserving places for some trade union's favourite son.
2. favourite sentence attrib. (see quot. 1964).
1933Bloomfield Lang. xi. 171 Certain forms [of sentence-type] are favorite sentence-forms. Ibid. 172 In English we have two favorite sentence-forms. One consists of actor-action phrases—John ran away... The other consists of a command..Be good! 1942Bloch & Trager Outl. Ling. Analysis v. 74 Let us look briefly at the English actor-action construction. The most striking thing about it is its universality: it is the favorite-sentence type of English. 1964R. H. Robins Gen. Ling. vi. 232 The patterns common to large numbers of the sentences of a language may be called its favourite sentence types. |