favor your father

[herbivorie]

I showed a picture of my parents to an American friend of mine and asked her "Which do you think I look like?" She said "I would say you favor your father".
I looked "favor" in a dictionary to confirm the meaning. The dictionary says it means "to look like one of your parents or grandparents" in AmE and also it's "old-fashioned".

Is that true? The friend of mine is not so old, so I wanted to confirm.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I showed a picture of my parents to an American friend of mine and asked her "Which do you think I look like?" She said "I would say you favor your father".
I looked "favor" in a dictionary to confirm the meaning. The dictionary says it means "to look like one of your parents or grandparents" in AmE and also it's "old-fashioned".

Is that true? The friend of mine is not so old, so I wanted to confirm.

"Favors" is sometimes used that way in AmE, but it is not as common as "looks like", "resembles", or "takes after".

See the Ngram here: https://books.google.com/ngrams/gra...is father;,c0;.t1;,takes after his father;,c0

 

[herbivorie]

Thank you for the useful link.

Has anyone heard a young American use "favor" in this sense?
I see it's not common, but I'd like to know whether the small number of people who use it are only old people or not.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Thank you for the useful link.

Has anyone heard a young American use "favor" in this sense?
I see it's not common, but I'd like to know whether the small number of people who use it are only old people or not.

It doesn't appear that it was ever very common, even when today's "old people" were younger.

 

[herbivorie]

I see it's never been common.

MikeNewYork (or other people), Have YOU ever heard of the word used in this sense?
Also, do native speakers of English understood the meaning of "favor your father" when they hear it, even if it's not common?

 

[MikeNewYork]

I see it's never been common.

MikeNewYork (or other people), Have YOU ever heard of the word used in this sense?
Also, do native speakers of English understood the meaning of "favor your father" when they hear it, even if it's not common?

Yes, and I have used it. And I believe most English speakers would understand it.