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Teach vs Confer - What's the difference?

teach | confer |

As a proper noun teach

is (slang) nickname for a teacher.

As a verb confer is

(obsolete|intransitive) to compare.

teach

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) techen, from (etyl) . More at (l).

Verb

  • To show (someone) the way; to guide, conduct.
  • * :
  • So thus within a whyle as they thus talked the nyghte passed / and the daye shone / and thenne syre launcelot armed hym / and took his hors / and they taught hym to the Abbaye and thyder he rode within the space of two owrys
  • (label) To pass on knowledge to.
  • (label) To pass on knowledge, especially as one's profession; to act as a teacher.
  • (label) To cause to learn or understand.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Rob Dorit
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Making Life from Scratch , passage=Deep Blue taught' us a great deal about the power of the human mind precisely because it could not reproduce the intuitive and logical leaps of Kasparov’s mind. A truly synthetic cell, built from scratch or even from preexisting components, will be a cell without ancestry, and it, too, will ' teach us a great deal about the underlying complexities of life without actually reproducing them.}}
    Synonyms
    * (sense) educate, instruct
    Antonyms
    * (sense) learn
    Derived terms
    * * teacher * teaching

    Etymology 2

    (probably clipping)

    Noun

    (es)
  • (pejorative) teacher
  • confer

    English

    Verb

    (conferr)
  • (obsolete) To compare.
  • * 1557 (book title):
  • The Newe Testament ... Conferred diligently with the Greke, and best approued translations.
  • *, II.3.1.i:
  • Confer thine estate with others […]. Be content and rest satisfied, for thou art well in respect to others […].
  • * Boyle
  • If we confer these observations with others of the like nature, we may find cause to rectify the general opinion.
  • To talk together, to consult, discuss; to deliberate.
  • * 1974 , "A Traveler's Perils", Time , 25 Mar 1974:
  • Local buttons popped when Henry Kissinger visited Little Rock last month to confer with Fulbright on the Middle East oil talks.
  • (obsolete) To bring together; to collect, gather.
  • To grant as a possession; to bestow.
  • * Milton
  • the public marks of honour and reward conferred upon me
  • * 2010 , Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer , 7 Feb 2010:
  • The special immunities that are conferred on MPs were framed with the essential purpose of allowing them to speak freely in parliament.
  • (obsolete) To contribute; to conduce.
  • * Glanvill
  • The closeness and compactness of the parts resting together doth much confer to the strength of the union.

    See also

    * cf ----