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[Etymonline :] 1530s, from Middle French conférer (14c.) "to give, converse, compare," from Latin conferre "to bring together," figuratively "to compare; consult, deliberate, talk over," from com- "together" (see com-) + ferre "to bear" (see infer). ...

[OED :] Etymology: < con- together, and intensive + ferre to bear, bring. French conférer (14th cent. in Littré) does not appear to have been taken into English:
hence the difference of stress between conˈfer , deˈfer , inˈfer ,
and ˈdiffer , ˈoffer , ˈproffer , ˈsuffer .
Compare collate v., formed on the participial stem of Latin conferre.

1. I was researching the etymology of 'confer', to understand how the two syntagms combined to evolve to mean 'to give or grant something'. My guess is that when two or more people 'bear' a hardship 'together', then one (or both) may give the other something as aid or relief. Am I right?

2. Anyhow, I then noticed a discrepancy: Etymonline asserts that 'confer' evolved from the Middle French conférer , but OED doubts this. Which is right?
If OED is right, then whence did the English 'confer' come?

3. OED also broaches 'collate' above, but how does this matter?

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    Note that the OED gives "to confer, or bestow" among the meanings of the Latin conferre, and derives it as " con- together, and intensive + ferre to bear, bring"; i.e. it is saying that one of the meanngs of the prefix con- is an intensive, separate from its original meaning "together"; and that the word had the meaning of giving (from a superior, or as an act of grace) in Latin.
    – Colin Fine
    May 25, 2015 at 16:10

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  1. Etymologies usually are more straightforward than that and the meaning of verbal prefixes is often not quite transparent. Latin ferre means 'bear' in the literal sense of carrying, and probably the notion of carrying something together got mixed up with the notion of giving something from one to the other at some point of time.

  2. English 'confer' could very much come directly from Latin, since conferre already is a Latin word - so it doesn't have to be borrowed it via French. (The Latin prefix 'com' becomes 'con' before -f)

  3. The past participle of Latin 'conferre' was 'collatum', so collate is borrowed from a different form of the same Latin verb.

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