different between affair vs topic

English

Alternative forms

• affaire (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English afere, affere, from Old French afaire, from a- + faire (“to do”), from Latin ad- + facere (“to do”). See fact, and confer ado.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /??f??/
• (otherwise) (US) IPA^(key): /??f??(?)/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??f??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Noun

affair (plural affairs)

1. (often in the plural) Something which is done or is to be done; business of any kind, commercial, professional, or public.

   Synonyms: matter, concern
2. Any proceeding or action which it is wished to refer to or characterize vaguely.
3. (military) An action or engagement not of sufficient magnitude to be called a battle.
4. A material object (vaguely designated).

   • The house was a big elaborate limestone affair, evidently new. Winter sunshine sparkled on lace-hung casement, on glass marquise, and the burnished bronze foliations of grille and door.
5. An adulterous relationship. (from affaire de cœur).
6. A romantic relationship with someone who is not one's regular partner (boyfriend, girlfriend).
7. A person with whom someone has an adulterous relationship.
8. A party or social gathering, especially of a formal nature.
9. (slang, now rare) The (male or female) genitals.
   • 1748, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure:

     [S]he, with the greatest effrontery imaginable, unbuttons his breeches, and removing his shirt, draws out his affair, so shrunk and diminished that I could not but remember the difference, now cresfallen, or just faintly lifting its head.

Translations

See also

• liaison

References

• affair in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• raffia

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English affair, from French affaire.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a?fe?/, [a?fe?]

Noun

affair m (plural affaires)

1. affair (extramarital relationship)

   Synonym: aventura

English

Alternative forms

• topick (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin topica, from Ancient Greek ??????? (topikós, “pertaining to a place, local, pertaining to a common place, or topic, topical”), from ????? (tópos, “a place”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t?p?k/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?t?p?k/
• Rhymes: -?p?k
• Hyphenation: top?ic

Adjective

topic

1. topical

Noun

topic (plural topics)

1. Subject; theme; a category or general area of interest.
2. (Internet) Discussion thread.
3. (music) A musical sign intended to suggest a particular style or genre.
   • 2012, Esti Sheinberg, Music Semiotics (page 9)

     In Peircean terms, topics are interpretants: signifieds that become new signifiers in the endless semiotic chain of interpretations.

4. (obsolete) An argument or reason.
   • 1675, John Wilkins, Of the Principle and Duties of Natural Religion

     contumacious persons, who are not to be fixed by any principles, whom no topics can work upon

5. (obsolete, medicine) An external local application or remedy, such as a plaster, a blister, etc.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wiseman to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (area of interest): subject, subject area

Derived terms

• -topic

Translations

Further reading

• topic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• topic in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• cop it, optic, picot