refer [LME] Refer comes from Latin referre ‘carry back’, from re- ‘back’ and ferre ‘bring’. Referee [M16th] did not appear in sports contexts until the mid 19th century. Referre is also the source of early 19th-century referendum [M18th] from the Latin for ‘referring’. Ferre is the source of numerous words in English including confer ‘bring together’; defer ‘put to one side or away’, which shares an origin with differ; fertile ‘bearing’; and transfer ‘carry across’, all of which came into the language in the Late Middle English period.