affect
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: ə.fĕkt'
ipa: /əˈfɛkt/
rhymes: -ɛkt
homophone: effect (weak vowel merger)
enpr: əfĕkt'
rhymes: -ɛkt
enpr: ə.fĕkt'
ipa: /əˈfɛkt/
rhymes: -ɛkt
homophone: effect (weak vowel merger)
Forms: form: affects
form: affecting
form: affected
form: affected
Etymology: From Middle English affecten, from Anglo-Norman affecter (“strive after”), Middle French affecter (“feign”), and their source, Latin affectāre (“to strive after, aim to do, pursue, imitate with dissimulation, feign”), frequentative of afficere (“to act upon, influence”) (see Etymology 1, above).
Senses: examples: text: to affect ignorance
text: to affect a British accent
text: He managed to affect a smile despite feeling quite miserable.
text: Thou dost affect my manners.
ref: c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
text: Careless she is with artful care, / Affecting to seem unaffected.
ref: a. 1729, William Congreve, A Hue and Cry After Fair Amoret:
text: He affected prescription lenses, framed in spidery gold, ground from thin slabs of pink synthetic quartz and beveled like the mirrors in a Victorian dollhouse.
ref: 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 12:
synonyms: fake
simulate
feign
glosses: To make a show of; to put on a pretense of; to feign; to assume. To make a false display of.
examples: text: Duke.[...] I loue the people,
But doe not like to stage me to their eyes:
Though it doe well, I doe not rellish well
Their lowd applause, and Aues vehement:
Nor doe I thinke the man of safe discretion
That do's affect it.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: For it is believed, that he never was married, affecting and embracing Chastity through the whole course of his Life.
ref: 1662, Jacques Olivier, translated by Richard Banke, A Discourse of Women, Shewing Their Imperfections Alphabetically, →OCLC, page 15:
text: Wiſe are thy words, and glad I would obey, / But this proud man affects imperial ſway.
ref: a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The First Book of Homer’s Ilias”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 430:
text: I seek the Vatican, and the palaces. I affect to be intoxicated with sights and suggestions, but I am not intoxicated.
ref: 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”, in Essays: First Series:
glosses: To aim for, to try to obtain.
examples: text: There is a Lady in Verona heere
Whom I affect: but she is nice, and coy,
And naught esteemes my aged eloquence.
ref: c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
text: From that day forth she gan to him affect, / And daily more her favour to augment […]
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: A young gentlewoman in Basil was married[…]to an ancient man against her will, whom she could not affect; she was continually melancholy, and pined away for grief […]
ref: 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection vii:
text: As for Queen Katharine, he rather respected, then affected; rather honoured, then loved her.
ref: 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI), page 173:
text: But when he pleased to show 't, his speech / In loftiness of sound was rich; / A Babylonish dialect, / Which learned pedants much affect.
ref: 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
glosses: To feel affection for (someone); to like, be fond of.
examples: text: Amongst humane conditions this one is very common, that we are rather pleased with strange things then with our owne; we love changes, affect alterations, and like innovations.
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 9, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book III, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
text: Go, let him have a table by himself, for he does neither affect company, nor is he fit for’t, indeed.
ref: c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
text: 1825, William Hazlitt, “On the Conduct of life: or Advice to a schoolboy” in Table-Talk Volume II, Paris: A. & W. Galignani, p. 284,
Do not affect the society of your inferiors in rank, nor court that of the great.
text: Think not, because he affecteth silks and jewels like a queen, and carrieth himself light and dainty as a silver birch tree on the mountain, that his hand is light or his courage doubtful in war.
ref: 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, pages 5–6:
glosses: To show a fondness for (something); to choose.
Derived terms: affected
affectedly
affectedness
affectation
affecter