different between elevate vs prefer

English

Etymology

From Latin elevatus, past participle of elevare (“to raise, lift up”), from e (“out”) + levare (“to make light, to lift”), from levis (“light”); see levity and lever.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??l?ve?t/

Verb

elevate (third-person singular simple present elevates, present participle elevating, simple past and past participle elevated)

1. (transitive) To raise (something) to a higher position.

   Synonyms: lift, raise

   Antonyms: drop, lower

   • 1534, William Marshall and George Joye, A Prymer in Englyshe, London: William Marshall,^[1]

     The Grace or Blessynge of the table to be sayed of chyldren standynge before it, thyr handes eleuated and ioyned to gyder

   • c. 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, Act V, Scene 2,^[2]

     She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband, another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled:

   • 1750, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 25, 12 June, 1750, Volume 1, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 216,^[3]

     We know that a few strokes of the axe will lop a cedar; but what arts of cultivation can elevate a shrub?

   • 1896, Joseph Conrad, An Outcast of the Islands, London: T. Fisher Unwin, Part 2, Chapter 5, p. 138,^[4]

     Abdulla expressed his surprise by elevating his eyebrows.

2. (transitive) To promote (someone) to a higher rank.

   Synonyms: exalt, promote

   Antonym: demote

   • 1682, Aphra Behn, The Roundheads or, The Good Old Cause, London: D. Brown et al., Act I, Scene 1, p. 6,^[5]

     Hard Fate of Greatness, We so highly Elevated

     Are more expos’d to Censure than the little ones,

   • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, London: J. Johnson, Part 1, Chapter 1, p. 24,^[6]

     Nothing can set the regal character in a more contemptible point of view, than the various crimes that have elevated men to the supreme dignity.

   • 1961, Joseph Heller, Catch-22, New York: Dell, Chapter 29, p. 334,^[7]

     […] that’s the way things go when you elevate mediocre people to positions of authority.

   • 2014, A. D. Wright, The Early Modern Papacy

     Much has also been made recently of the distorting effects exerted on the administration of Urban VIII by the interests of the Barberini nephews, especially of the two elevated to cardinal status.

   • 2014, Guy W. Lecky-Thompson, Inside SharePoint 2007 Administration (page 55)

     At that point, you have to elevate the account's rights, activate the feature, and then demote the account again.

3. (transitive) To confer honor or nobility on (someone).

   Synonyms: ennoble, exalt, honor

   • 1591, Edmund Spenser, “Virgils Gnat” in Complaints, London: William Ponsonbie,^[8]

     That none, whom fortune freely doth aduaunce,

     Himselfe therefore to heauen should eleuate:

     For loftie type of honour through the glaunce

     Of enuies dart, is downe in dust prostrate;

4. (transitive) To make (something or someone) more worthy or of greater value.
   • 1682, John Dryden, The Medal, Edinburgh, “Epistle to the Whigs,”^[9]

     […] if you encourage a young Beginner, who knows but he may elevate his stile a little,

   • 1768, William Gilpin, An Essay upon Prints, London: J. Robson, Chapter 1, p. 33,^[10]

     He is the true artist, who copies nature; but, where he finds her mean, elevates her from his own ideas of beauty.

   • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, Volume 2, Chapter 4, p. 60,^[11]

     You can’t think how it elevates him in my opinion, to know for certain that he’s really conscientious!

5. (transitive) To direct (the mind, thoughts, etc.) toward more worthy things.
   • 1665, Robert Boyle, Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects, London: Henry Herringman, Section 4, Chapter 4, pp. 73-74,^[12]

     […] the devout Christian improves the Blessings he receives of this inferiour World, to elevate his mind above it:

   • 1999, Ahdaf Soueif, The Map of Love, New York: Anchor Books, 2000, Chapter 18,^[13]

     On the whole I would regard serious art as a means to elevate the emotions and educate the spirit […]

6. (transitive) To increase the intensity or degree of (something).

   Synonyms: increase, raise

   Antonyms: decrease, diminish, lower, reduce

   1. (dated) To increase the loudness of (a sound, especially one's voice).
      • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, London: A. Millar, Volume 5, Book 14, Chapter 10, p. 191,^[14]

        […] the Uncle had more than once elevated his Voice, so as to be heard down Stairs;
7. (transitive, obsolete) To lift the spirits of (someone)

   Synonyms: cheer up, elate

   Antonyms: depress, sadden

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 8, lines 633-634,^[15]

     […] Hope elevates, and joy

     Bright’ns his Crest,

   • 1759, Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid and J. Bell, Part 1, Section 2, Chapter 1, p. 20,^[16]

     It gives us the spleen […] to see another too happy or too much elevated, as we call it, with any little piece of good fortune.

8. (dated, colloquial, humorous) To intoxicate in a slight degree; to make (someone) tipsy.
   • 1755, George Colman and Bonnell Thornton, The Connoisseur, No. 91, 23 October, 1755, Volume 2, London: R. Baldwin, 1756, p. 557,^[17]

     Steele entertained them till he was tipsy; when the same wine that stupified him, only served to elevate Addison, who took up the ball just as Steele dropt it, and kept it up for the rest of the evening.

   • 1791, James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, London: Charles Dilly, Volume 2, 1778,^[18]

     [Johnson,] from drinking only water, supposed every body who drank wine to be elevated

   • 1822, Walter Scott, Peveril of the Peak, Edinburgh: Archibald, Constable, Volume 1, Chapter 3, p. 92,^[19]

     […] the elevated Cavaliers […] sent to Roger Raine of the Peveril Arms […] for two tubs of merry stingo

9. (obsolete, Latinism) To attempt to make (something) seem less important, remarkable, etc.

   Synonyms: lessen, detract, disparage

   • 1660, Jeremy Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, London: Richard Royston, Volume 1, Chapter 4, Rule 2, p. 126,^[20]

     […] the Arabian Physicians […] endevour to elevate and lessen the thing [i.e. belief in the virgin birth of Jesus], by saying, It is not wholly beyond the force of nature, that a Virgin should conceive […]

Related terms

• elevatable
• elevation
• elevator
• elevatory

Translations

Adjective

elevate (comparative more elevate, superlative most elevate)

1. (obsolete) Elevated; raised aloft.
   • 1548, Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke, London: Richard Grafton, Henry VII, year 6,^[21]

     The sayde crosse was .iii. tymes deuoutly eleuate, and at euery exaltacion, ye Moores beyng within the cytie, roared, howled and cryed,

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 2, lines 567-578,^[22]

     Others apart sat on a Hill retir’d,

     In thoughts more elevate,

Further reading

• elevate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• elevate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Italian

Verb

elevate

1. second-person plural present indicative of elevare
2. second-person plural imperative of elevare
3. feminine plural of elevato

Latin

Verb

?lev?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of ?lev?

English

Alternative forms

• præfer [16th-17th c.]
• preferre [14th-17th c.]

Etymology

From Middle English preferren, from Anglo-Norman preferer and Old French preferer, from Latin praefer?, praeferre. Displaced native Middle English foresettan and foreberan.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /p???f?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /p???f??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Verb

prefer (third-person singular simple present prefers, present participle preferring, simple past and past participle preferred)

1. (transitive) To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better. [from 14^thc.]

   I'd prefer it if you didn't do it.

   • "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects; […]."
2. (transitive, now dated) To advance, promote (someone or something). [from 14^thc.]
   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 67,^[1]

     […] she was one of my Master’s Captives. For this Reason, I presume, it was, that she took so much Compassion upon me; considering herself a Slave in a strange Country, and only preferr’d to my Master’s Bed by Courtesy.

3. (transitive) To present or submit (something) to an authority (now usually in "to prefer charges"). [from 16^thc.]
   • 1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 5, p. 137,^[2]

     At length the Maroons, who were delighted to have him with them, became discontented with his absence, and for several years, during the sessions of the House of Assembly, preferred repeated complaints against him.

4. (obsolete, transitive) To put forward for acceptance; to introduce, recommend (to). [16^th-19^thc.]
   • 1630, John Smith, The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine Iohn Smith, London: Thomas Slater, Chapter 1, p. 2,^[3]

     one Master David Hume, who making some use of his purse, gave him Letters to his friends in Scotland to preferre him to King Iames.

   • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, Volume One, Chapter 17,^[4]

     Such were the arguments which my will boldly preferred to my conscience, as coin which ought to be current, and which conscience, like a grumbling shopkeeper, was contented to accept […].

Usage notes

• The verb can be used in three different forms:
  1. prefer + noun + to (or over) + noun. Example: I prefer coffee to tea.
  2. prefer + gerund + to (or over) + gerund. Example: I prefer skiing to swimming.
  3. prefer + full infinitive + rather than + bare infinitive. Example: I prefer to die honorably rather than live in shame. If the second verb is the same as the first, it can be elided: I prefer to eat fish rather than meat.

Inflection

Synonyms

• forechoose

Antonyms

• disprefer

Related terms

• nonpreferred
• preferable / preferrable
• preference
• preferendum
• preferential
• preferer / preferrer
• preferment
• preferred creditor, preferred provider, preferred stock, preferred stockholder
• unpreferred
• prelate

Translations

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [pre?fer]

Verb

prefer

1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of prefera