different between affection vs affect

affection

English

Etymology

From Middle English affection, affeccion, affeccioun, from Old French affection, from Latin affecti?nem, from affecti?; see affect.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /??f?k??n/
  • Hyphenation: af?fec?tion
  • Rhymes: -?k??n

Noun

affection (countable and uncountable, plural affections)

  1. The act of affecting or acting upon.
  2. The state of being affected, especially: a change in, or alteration of, the emotional state of a person or other animal, caused by a subjective affect (a subjective feeling or emotion), which arises in response to a stimulus which may result from either thought or perception.
  3. An attribute; a quality or property; a condition.
    • 1756, Robert Simson, Euclid's Elements
      A Porism is a proposition in which it is proposed to demonstrate that some one thing, or more things than one, are given, to which, as also to each of innumerable other things, not given indeed, but which have the same relation to those which are given, it is to be shewn that there belongs some common affection described in the proposition.
  4. An emotion; a feeling or natural impulse acting upon and swaying the mind.
    • 1905, John C. Ager (translator), Emanuel Swedenborg, Heaven and Hell Chapter 27
      It is known that each individual has a variety of affections, one affection when in joy, another when in grief, another when in sympathy and compassion, another when in sincerity and truth, another when in love and charity, another when in zeal or in anger, another when in simulation and deceit, another when in quest of honor and glory, and so on.
  5. A feeling of love or strong attachment.
    • 1908, Gorge Bernard Shaw, Getting Married/Spurious "Natural" Affection
      What is more, they are protected from even such discomfort as the dislike of his prisoners may cause to a gaoler by the hypnotism of the convention that the natural relation between husband and wife and parent and child is one of intense affection, and that to feel any other sentiment towards a member of one's family is to be a monster.
    • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice Chapter 61
      Mr. Bennet missed his second daughter exceedingly; his affection for her drew him oftener from home than anything else could do. He delighted in going to Pemberley, especially when he was least expected.
  6. (medicine, archaic) Disease; morbid symptom; malady.
    • 1907, The Medical Brief (volume 35, page 840)
      A heavy clay soil is bad for all neuralgics, and the house should be dry, and on a sandy or gravel soil. The desideratum for all neuralgic affections is perpetual summer []

Usage notes

In the sense of "feeling of love or strong attachment", it is often in the plural; formerly followed by "to", but now more generally by "for" or "toward(s)", for example filial, social, or conjugal affections; to have an affection for or towards children

Synonyms

  • (kind feeling): attachment, fondness, kindness, love, passion, tenderness

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

affection (third-person singular simple present affections, present participle affectioning, simple past and past participle affectioned)

  1. (now rare) To feel affection for. [from 16th c.]
    • 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, V:
      Why, truth is truth, I do not think my lady Isabella ever much affectioned my young lord, your son: yet he was a sweet youth as one should see.

Translations

Further reading

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

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin affecti?, affecti?nem.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /a.f?k.sj??/

Noun

affection f (plural affections)

  1. affection, love, fondness
  2. medical condition, complaint, disease

Further reading

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

Scots

Noun

affection (plural affections)

  1. affection

References

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

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affect

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.

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