Favor: One more for the vocabulary of prestige, authorship and influence

It might be most basic to say we want favor and/or favors. Over the long run, we seek credit or attribution for actions done and things made. But credit accrues toward prestige; and arguably prestige exerts its influence as the basis for writing a kind of check on the bank in which we've accrued it. The checks underwrite favorable transactions with strangers. Alternatively, we can secure favor through the issue of private scrip, as when we invite a person to "Do me a favor," in the absence of sufficient prestige or holdings at a bank that person recognizes.