different between affect vs shatter

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English affecten, from Latin affect?re, from Latin affectus, the participle stem of Latin afficere (“to act upon, influence, affect, attack with disease”), from ad- + facere (“to make, do”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?.f?kt', IPA^(key): /??f?kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt

Verb

affect (third-person singular simple present affects, present participle affecting, simple past and past participle affected)

1. (transitive) To influence or alter.

   Synonyms: alter, change, have an effect on, have an impact on, influence
2. (transitive) To move to emotion.

   Synonyms: move, touch

   • 1757, Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

     A consideration of the rationale of our passions seems to me very necessary for all who would affect them upon solid and pure principles.

3. (transitive, pathology) Of an illness or condition, to infect or harm (a part of the body).

   Synonyms: attack, harm, infect

4. (transitive, archaic) To dispose or incline.
5. (transitive, archaic) To tend to by affinity or disposition.

   • The drops of every fluid affect a round figure.

6. (transitive, archaic) To assign; to appoint.

   • One of the domestics was affected to his special service.

Usage notes

Affect and effect are sometimes confused. Affect conveys influence over something that already exists, but effect indicates the manifestation of new or original ideas or entities:

• "...new policies have effected major changes in government."
• "...new policies have affected major changes in government."

The former indicates that major changes were made as a result of new policies, while the latter indicates that before new policies, major changes were in place, and that the new policies had some influence over these existing changes.

The verbal noun uses of affect are distinguished from the verbal noun uses of effect more clearly than the regular verb forms. An affect is something that acts or acted upon something else. However, an effect is the result of an action (by something else).

Conjugation

Derived terms

• affectingly

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English affecten, from Anglo-Norman affecter (“strive after”), Middle French affecter (“feign”), and their source, Latin affect?re (“to strive after, aim to do, pursue, imitate with dissimulation, feign”), frequentative of afficere (“to act upon, influence”) (see Etymology 1, above).

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?f?kt', IPA^(key): /??f?kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt

Verb

affect (third-person singular simple present affects, present participle affecting, simple past and past participle affected)

1. (transitive) To make a show of; to put on a pretense of; to feign; to assume. To make a false display of. [from 16th c.]

   Synonyms: fake, simulate, feign
2. (obsolete, transitive) To aim for, to try to obtain. [15th-19th c.]
3. (transitive, rare) To feel affection for (someone); to like, be fond of. [from 16th c.]
   • c. 1589, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act III, Scene 1,^[1]

     There is a Lady in Verona heere

     Whom I affect: but she is nice, and coy,

     And naught esteemes my aged eloquence.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.10:

     From that day forth she gan to him affect, / And daily more her favour to augment […]

   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-History of Britain, London: John Williams, Book 5, p. 173,^[2]

     As for Queen Katharine, he rather respected, then affected; rather honoured, then loved her.

   • 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 1:

     But when he pleased to show 't, his speech / In loftiness of sound was rich; / A Babylonish dialect, / Which learned pedants much affect.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To show a fondness for (something); to choose. [from 16th c.]
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, III.9:

     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.

   • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, Act I, Scene 2,^[3]

     Go, let him have a table by himself, for he does neither affect company, nor is he fit for’t, indeed.

   • 1825, William Hazlitt, “On the Conduct of life: or Advice to a schoolboy” in Table-Talk Volume II, Paris: A. & W. Galignani, p. 284,^[4]

     Do not affect the society of your inferiors in rank, nor court that of the great.

Derived terms

• affected
• affectedly
• affectedness
• affectation
• affecter

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English affect, from Latin affectus, adfectus (“a state of mind or body produced by some (external) influence, especially sympathy or love”), from afficere (“to act upon, influence”)

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?'f?kt, IPA^(key): /?æ.f?kt/

Noun

affect (plural affects)

1. (obsolete) One's mood or inclination; mental state. [14th-17th c.]
2. (obsolete) A desire, an appetite. [16th-17th c.]
3. (psychology) A subjective feeling experienced in response to a thought or other stimulus; mood, emotion, especially as demonstrated in external physical signs. [from 19th c.]
   • 1999, Joyce Crick, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Oxford 2008, p. 62:

     if we are afraid of robbers in a dream, the robbers are certainly imaginary, but the fear is real. This draws our attention to the fact that the development of affects [transl. Affectentwicklung] in dreams is not amenable to the judgement we make of the rest of the dream-content [...].

   • 2004, Jeffrey Greenberg & Thomas A Pyszczynski, Handbook of Experimental Existential Psychology, p. 407:

     A third study demonstrated that the effects of self-affirmation on self-regulated performance were not due to positive affect.

Usage notes

Affect and effect can both be used as nouns or verbs, but when used as a noun the word affect is limited to the above psychology uses and the definitions for effect are much more common. See also the usage notes as a verb above.

Derived terms

• affect display
• flat affect
• labile affect

Related terms

• affective
• affection
• affectionate

Translations

References

• affect in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “affect”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin affectus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.f?kt/

Noun

affect m (plural affects)

1. (psychology, philosophy) affect; emotion

Related terms

• affectif

See also

• intellect

Further reading

• “affect” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??f?k(t)/

Etymology 1

Verb

affect (third-person singular present affects, present participle affectin, past affectit, past participle affectit)

1. to affect
2. (law) to burden property with a fixed charge or payment, or other condition or restriction

Etymology 2

Noun

affect (plural affects)

1. affect, mood

References

• Eagle, Andy, ed. (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.

English

Etymology

From Middle English schateren (“to scatter, dash”), an assibilated form of Middle English scateren ("to scatter"; see scatter), from Old English scaterian, from Proto-Germanic *skat- (“to smash, scatter”). Cognate with Dutch schateren (“to burst out laughing”), Low German schateren, Albanian shkatërroj (“to destroy, devastate”). Doublet of scatter.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??æt.?(?)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??æt.?/
• Rhymes: -æt?(?)
• Hyphenation: shat?ter

Verb

shatter (third-person singular simple present shatters, present participle shattering, simple past and past participle shattered)

1. (transitive) to violently break something into pieces.

2. (transitive) to destroy or disable something.
3. (intransitive) to smash, or break into tiny pieces.
4. (transitive) to dispirit or emotionally defeat
   • 1984 Martyn Burke, The commissar's report, p36

     Your death will shatter him. Which is what I want. Actually, I would prefer to kill him.

   • 1992 Rose Gradym "Elvis Cures Teen's Brain Cancer!" Weekly World News, Vol. 13, No. 38 (23 June, 1992), p41

     A CAT scan revealed she had an inoperable brain tumor. The news shattered Michele's mother.

   • 2006 A. W. Maldonado, Luis Muñoz Marín: Puerto Rico's democratic revolution, p163

     The marriage, of course, was long broken but Munoz knew that asking her for a divorce would shatter her.
5. (obsolete) To scatter about.

Translations

Noun

shatter (countable and uncountable, plural shatters)

1. (countable, archaic) A fragment of anything shattered.
   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, Directions to Servants

     it will fall upon the glass of the sconce, and break it into shatters

2. A (pine) needle.

   Synonym: shat (Maryland, Delaware)

   • 1834, The Southern Agriculturist and Register of Rural Affairs: Adapted to the Southern Section of the United States, page 421:

     My usual habit is, as soon as I get my wheat trodden out, and my corn secured in the fall, to litter my farm yard (and if my cultivation is far off, I select some warm spot near the field) with leaves and pine shatters, (preferring the former) ...

   • 1859, Samuel W. Cole, The New England Farmer, page 277:

     They are preserved in cellars, or out of doors in kilns. The method of fixing them is to raise the ground a few inches, where they are to be placed, and cover with pine shatters to the depth of six inches or more.

   • 2012, Marguerite Henry, Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague, Simon and Schuster (?ISBN), page 95:

     Grandpa snapped his fingers. "Consarn it all!" he sputtered. "I plumb forgot the pine shatters. Paul and Maureen, you gather some nice smelly pine shatters from off 'n the floor of the woods. Nothin' makes a better cushion for pony feet as pine shatters ..."

3. (uncountable, slang) A form of concentrated cannabis.

Translations

Anagrams

• Hatters, Threats, hatters, stareth, threats