English
favorable
Favorable comes from Latin favōrābilis ‘favored, popular’, and goes back to faveō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfaveō‘to be well disposed or inclined toward, favor, countenance, befriend’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfavor
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfavōrābilis‘favored, popular’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400favorable
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500favourable‘benevolent, well-disposed’
- Englishearliest quotation 1871favorable
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfaveō‘to be well disposed or inclined toward, favor, countenance, befriend’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfavor
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfavōrābilis‘favored, popular’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400favorable
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500favourable‘benevolent, well-disposed’
- Englishearliest quotation 1871favorable
Earliest quotation: 1871, Ohio State Medical Society, Transactions of the Annual Meeting: “The conditions favorable to health and life of the…”
Equivalent to favor + -able
Latin faveō ‘to be kind to’
Latin favor ‘good will’
Old French favor
Anglo-Norman favour
Middle English favour ‘goodwill’
English favor
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- ‘to be, become’
be, been, power, future, present, build, possible, physical, improve, presence, essential, bond, bush, bound, contribution, physician, absence, entity, booth, approve, probability, absent, distribute, fiat, contributor, bun, bouquet, retribution, attribution, imp, rebuke, impotent, impossibility, bower, aren, beamer, bosque, phylogeny, physic, phylum, 84 more
through Latin favor
through Middle English favourable ‘benevolent, well-disposed’
Today it means
adj —
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin faveō / favorable