Confer vs Impute - What's the difference?
confer | impute |
(obsolete) To compare.
* 1557 (book title):
*, II.3.1.i:
* Boyle
To talk together, to consult, discuss; to deliberate.
* 1974 , "A Traveler's Perils", Time , 25 Mar 1974:
(obsolete) To bring together; to collect, gather.
To grant as a possession; to bestow.
* Milton
* 2010 , Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer , 7 Feb 2010:
(obsolete) To contribute; to conduce.
* Glanvill
To reckon as pertaining or attributable; to charge; to ascribe; to attribute; to set to the account of; to charge to one as the author, responsible originator, or possessor; -- generally in a bad sense.
* 1751 , (Thomas Gray), , lines 37–40:
* 1856 February, , “(Oliver Goldsmith)” in the (eighth edition), volume and page numbers unknown:
* 1956–1960 , (second edition, 1960), chapter ii: “Motives and Motivation”, page 29:
(theology) To ascribe (sin or righteousness) (to) someone by substitution.
* 2009 , (Diarmaid MacCulloch), A History of Christianity , Penguin (2010), page 607:
To take account of; to consider; to regard.
* 1788 , (Edward Gibbon), (The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) VI, chapter lxiv, “A.D. 1355–1391: The Emperor John Palæologus; Discord of the Greeks”,
To attribute or credit to.
To attribute (responsibility or fault) to a cause or source.
As verbs the difference between confer and impute
is that confer is (obsolete|intransitive) to compare while impute is .confer
English
Verb
(conferr)- The Newe Testament ... Conferred diligently with the Greke, and best approued translations.
- Confer thine estate with others […]. Be content and rest satisfied, for thou art well in respect to others […].
- If we confer these observations with others of the like nature, we may find cause to rectify the general opinion.
- Local buttons popped when Henry Kissinger visited Little Rock last month to confer with Fulbright on the Middle East oil talks.
- the public marks of honour and reward conferred upon me
- The special immunities that are conferred on MPs were framed with the essential purpose of allowing them to speak freely in parliament.
- The closeness and compactness of the parts resting together doth much confer to the strength of the union.
See also
* cf ----impute
English
Verb
(imput)- Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, // If mem’ry o’er their tomb no trophies raise, // Where thro’ the long-drawn isle and fretted vault, // The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.
- He was vain, sensual, frivolous, profuse, improvident. One vice of a darker shade was imputed to him, envy.
- We ascribe or impute motives to others and avow them or confess to them in ourselves.
- To use the technical language of theologians, God through his grace ‘imputes ’ the merits of the crucified and risen Christ to a fallen human being who remains without inherent merit, and who without this ‘imputation’ would not be ‘made’ righteous at all.
page 328:
- They ?erved with honour in the wars of Bajazet; but a plan of fortifying Con?tantinople excited his jealou?y: he threatened their lives; the new works were in?tantly demoli?hed; and we ?hall be?tow a prai?e, perhaps above the merit of Palæologus, if we impute this la?t humiliation as the cau?e of his death.
- We imputed this quotation to Shakespeare.
- People impute great cleverness to cats.
- The teacher imputed the student's failure to his nervousness.