different between spur vs affect

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sp??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sp?/
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Etymology 1

From Middle English spure, spore, from Old English spura, spora, from Proto-Germanic *spurô, from Proto-Indo-European *sper-, *sperw- (“to twitch, push, fidget, be quick”).

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. A rigid implement, often roughly y-shaped, that is fixed to one's heel for the purpose of prodding a horse. Often worn by, and emblematic of, the cowboy or the knight.

   Meronyms: rowel, prick

   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 22:

     Two sorts of spurs seem to have been in use about the time of the Conquest, one called a pryck, having only a single point like the gaffle of a fighting cock; the other consisting of a number of points of considerable length, radiating from and revolving on a center, thence named the rouelle or wheel spur.

2. A jab given with the spurs.
   • 1832, The Atheneum (volume 31, page 493)

     I had hardly said the word, when Kit jumped into the saddle, and gave his horse a whip and a spur — and off it cantered, as if it were in as great a hurry to be married as Kit himself.

3. (figuratively) Anything that inspires or motivates, as a spur does a horse.
4. An appendage or spike pointing rearward, near the foot, for instance that of a rooster.
5. Any protruding part connected at one end, for instance a highway that extends from another highway into a city.
6. Roots, tree roots.
7. (geology) A mountain that shoots from another mountain or range and extends some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.
8. A spiked iron worn by seamen upon the bottom of the boot, to enable them to stand upon the carcass of a whale to strip off the blubber.
9. (carpentry) A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, such as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.
10. (architecture) The short wooden buttress of a post.
11. (architecture) A projection from the round base of a column, occupying the angle of a square plinth upon which the base rests, or bringing the bottom bed of the base to a nearly square form. It is generally carved in leafage.
12. Ergotized rye or other grain.
13. A wall in a fortification that crosses a part of a rampart and joins to an inner wall.
14. (shipbuilding) A piece of timber fixed on the bilgeways before launching, having the upper ends bolted to the vessel's side.
15. (shipbuilding) A curved piece of timber serving as a half to support the deck where a whole beam cannot be placed.
16. (mining) A branch of a vein.
17. (rail transport) A very short branch line of a railway line.
18. (transport) A short branch road of a motorway, freeway or major road.
19. (botany) A short thin side shoot from a branch, especially one that bears fruit or, in conifers, the shoots that bear the leaves.

Derived terms

• spur gear
• spur-leather
• spur-of-the-moment
• spur road

Translations

Verb

spur (third-person singular simple present spurs, present participle spurring, simple past and past participle spurred)

1. (transitive) To prod (especially a horse) on the side or flank, with the intent to urge motion or haste, to gig.
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act V, Scene III, line 339:

     Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head! Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood; Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!

2. (transitive) To urge or encourage to action, or to a more vigorous pursuit of an object

   Synonyms: incite, stimulate, instigate, impel, drive; see also Thesaurus:incite

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act III, Scene IV, line 4.

     My desire / (More sharp than filed steel) did spur me forth...
3. (transitive) To put spurs on.

4. (intransitive) To press forward; to travel in great haste.

Derived terms

• spur on

Translations

Etymology 2

See sparrow.

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. A tern.

Etymology 3

Short for spurious.

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. (electronics) A spurious tone, one that interferes with a signal in a circuit and is often masked underneath that signal.

Etymology 4

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. The track of an animal, such as an otter; a spoor.

Translations

Etymology 5

Verb

spur (third-person singular simple present spurs, present participle spurring, simple past and past participle spurred)

1. (obsolete, dialectal) Alternative form of speer.
   • 1638, Thomas Heywood, "The Rape of Lucrece. A true Roman Tragedy", in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood, Vol. V, John Pearson, 1874, pages 230 & 231.

   • The Pall Mall Magazine, Vol. 33, 1904, page 435.

Anagrams

• Prus, purs, surp

Middle English

Noun

spur

1. Alternative form of spore

Scots

Alternative forms

• sparra
• spug
• spuggie
• speug

Noun

spur (plural spurs)

1. sparrow

References

• “spur” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

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.