Conferring

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of officially giving or awarding a title, degree, or honor ; the process of exchanging ideas or seeking advice through discussion
2. Providing or presenting an official recognition or gift ; engaging in conversation to deliberate or share opinions
3. Bestowing with formal approval or an honor ; conferring by talking together to reach a decision or understanding

Etymology: "Conferring" is the present participle of "confer", and the verb's core idea is literally carrying something together. It comes from Latin "conferre", built from "com-" ("together") and "ferre" ("to bring" or "to carry"), so the original sense was simply bringing things into one place, as in gathering people or comparing notes. The word's sense of bestowing a gift or honor on someone grew from that idea of bringing something to a person. The Latin verb passed into English by way of Middle French "conférer" and Old French "conferer", arriving in Early Modern English as "conferre". Its relatives show how far the family spread: "infer", "refer", "defer", "prefer" and "prelate" all share the same Latin "ferre" core, though they took very different paths. "Confer" is also a doublet of "collate", meaning that the two English words descend from the same Latin root but arrived through different routes, one through French and one more directly from Latin.

Synonyms: granting, bestowing, awarding, giving, presenting

Antonyms: withholding, taking, removing, denying, retracting