Favor
Middle English (in the noun sense ‘liking, preference’): via Old French from Latin favor, from favere ‘show kindness to’ (related to fovere ‘cherish’).
wiktionary
From Middle English favour, favor, faver, from Anglo-Norman favour, from mainland Old French favor, from Latin favor(“good will; kindness; partiality”), from faveō(“to be kind to”). Respelled in American English to more closely match its Latin etymon. Compare also Danish favør(“favor”), Irish fabhar(“favor”), from the same Romance source.
etymonline
favor (n.)
c. 1300, "attractiveness, beauty, charm" (archaic), from Old French favor "a favor; approval, praise; applause; partiality" (13c., Modern French faveur), from Latin favorem (nominative favor) "good will, inclination, partiality, support," coined by Cicero from stem of favere "to show kindness to," from PIE *ghow-e- "to honor, revere, worship" (cognate: Old Norse ga "to heed").
Meaning "good will, kind regard" is from mid-14c. in English; sense of "act of kindness, a kindness done" is from late 14c. Meaning "bias, partiality" is from late 14c. Meaning "thing given as a mark of favor" is from late 15c. Phrase in favor of recorded from 1560s.
favor (v.)
mid-14c., "to regard with favor, indulge, treat with partiality," from Old French favorer, from favor "a favor, partiality" (see favor (n.)). Meaning "to resemble, look somewhat like" is from c. 1600. Related: Favored; favoring.
