Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#AFFECTIONCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#AFFECTION affection, affeccion, affeccioun, from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#AFFECTION affection, from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#AFFECTION affectiōnem, from affectiō; equivalent to affect +‎ -ionCategory:English terms suffixed with -ion#AFFECTION.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈfɛk.ʃən/, /əˈfɛk.t͡ʃən/Category:English 3-syllable words#AFFECTIONCategory:English 3-syllable words#AFFECTIONCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#AFFECTION

• Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: af‧fec‧tion
• Rhymes: -ɛkʃənCategory:Rhymes:English/ɛkʃən#AFFECTIONCategory:Rhymes:English/ɛkʃən/3 syllables#AFFECTION

Noun

affection (countable and uncountable, plural affections)Category:English lemmas#AFFECTIONCategory:English nouns#AFFECTIONCategory:English uncountable nouns#AFFECTIONCategory:English countable nouns#AFFECTIONCategory:English countable nouns#AFFECTIONCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#AFFECTIONCategory:Pages with entries#AFFECTIONCategory:Pages with 3 entries#AFFECTION

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.
4. 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.

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5. An emotion; a feeling or natural impulse acting upon and swaying the mind.
   • 2013 August 23, Mark Cocker, “Wings of Desire”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 11, page 26:

     Our affections for wild animals are distributed very unevenly. Take insects.

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   • 1905, Emanuel Swedenborg, chapter 27, in John C. Ager, transl., Heaven and Hell:

     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.

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6. A feeling of love or strong attachment.

   I have a lot of affection for my little sister.Category:English terms with usage examples#AFFECTION

   The marriage therapist suggested they show each other more affection.Category:English terms with usage examples#AFFECTION

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 61, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:

     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.

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   • 1908, George 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.

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   • 2016 March 8, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 806 - Terrible Excuse:

     "Did you ever like me back, Ryan? All those years, I didn't know how to show my affection for you, so I wasn't sure if you weren't getting it or you just didn't care. But I need to know which it was."

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   • 2021 August 13, Gayle, Sara Davis, David Pittenger, “abcdefu”, in A Study of the Human Experience Volume One‎, performed by Gayle:

     Dated a girl that I hate, for the attention / She only made it two days, what a connection / It's like you'd do anything, for my affection / You're going all about it in the worst ways

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7. (medicineCategory:en:Medicine#AFFECTION, archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#AFFECTION) A disease; a morbid symptom; a malady.
   • 1834, Samuel George Morton, Illustrations of Pulmonary Consumption:

     a pulmonary affection

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   • 1851, Russell Thacher Trall, The Hydropathic Encyclopedia, page 123:

     The recedent or retrograde form is marked by a sudden subsidence of the inflammatory state of the joints, succeeded immediately by an affection of some internal part, where is thenceforth the seat of the morbid manifestations.

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   • 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 […]

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Verb

affection (third-person singular simple present affections, present participle affectioning, simple past and past participle affectioned)Category:English lemmas#AFFECTIONCategory:English verbs#AFFECTIONCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#AFFECTIONCategory:Pages with entries#AFFECTIONCategory:Pages with 3 entries#AFFECTION

1. (now rareCategory:English terms with rare senses#AFFECTION) To feel affection for. [from 16th c.]
   • 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, section 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.

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Etymology

Learned borrowing from LatinCategory:French terms borrowed from Latin#AFFECTIONCategory:French learned borrowings from Latin#AFFECTIONCategory:French terms derived from Latin#AFFECTION affectiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.fɛk.sjɔ̃/Category:French 3-syllable words#AFFECTIONCategory:French terms with IPA pronunciation#AFFECTION

• Audio:

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  Category:French terms with audio pronunciation#AFFECTION

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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Noun

affection f (plural affections)Category:French lemmas#AFFECTIONCategory:French nouns#AFFECTIONCategory:French countable nouns#AFFECTIONCategory:French entries with incorrect language header#AFFECTIONCategory:French feminine nouns#AFFECTIONCategory:Pages with entries#AFFECTIONCategory:Pages with 3 entries#AFFECTION

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

Further reading

• “affection”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Noun

affection (plural affections)Category:Scots lemmas#AFFECTIONCategory:Scots nouns#AFFECTIONCategory:Scots entries with incorrect language header#AFFECTIONCategory:Pages with entries#AFFECTIONCategory:Pages with 3 entries#AFFECTION

1. affection

References

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