referar

Referar is a verb found in a limited range of Romance-language varieties. It means to refer to something, to cite a source, or to relate information to another part of a discourse. In many languages where it appears, referar is considered rare, dialectal, or archaic, and in contemporary standard usage the more common verb is referir.

Etymology: Referar is derived from the Latin referre, via proto-Romance developments. In some varieties it arose as a back-formation or semantic specialization from referer or from the noun referencia, diverging from the more common referir in meaning or stylistic usage.

Usage: In places where referar survives, it is typically confined to formal, historical, or literary registers. It can take a direct object representing the item being referred, and is often paired with a prepositional phrase to indicate the referent, such as referar a documento or referar a pasaje. Modern grammars generally treat referar as marginal and advise speakers to use referir instead.

Geographic distribution: References to referar are most common in certain regional varieties of Iberian Romance languages and in historical texts from some communities. Outside those contexts, the term is rarely encountered.

See also: refer, reference, citation, cross-reference.