To show favor toward; to treat with special kindness or preference; to grant special treatment to someone.
From 'be-' (causative prefix) + 'favor' (from Latin 'favere,' to support or show goodwill). This Middle English construction means 'to cause favor toward' or 'to act favorably toward.'
English medieval writers had words like 'befavor' that have completely vanished from modern speech, but they reveal how our ancestors thought differently—they could compress 'show favor to' into one compact verb, making their language far more efficient in poetic contexts.
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