affect

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

• enPR: ə.fĕkt', IPA^(key): /ə.ˈfɛkt/

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• Rhymes: -ɛkt

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

   The experience affected me deeply.

   The heat of the sunlight affected the speed of the chemical reaction.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Macaulay

     The climate affected their health and spirits.

   • 2012 January 1, Steven Sloman, “The Battle Between Intuition and Deliberation”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 74:

     Libertarian paternalism is the view that, because the way options are presented to citizens affects what they choose, society should present options in a way that “nudges” our intuitive selves to make choices that are more consistent with what our more deliberative selves would have chosen if they were in control.

2. (transitive) To move to emotion.

   Synonyms: move, touch

   He was deeply affected by the tragic ending of the play.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Edmund Burke

     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

   Hepatitis affects the liver.

4. (transitive, archaic) To dispose or incline.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     men whom they thought best affected to religion and their country's liberty

5. (transitive, archaic) To tend to by affinity or disposition.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Newton

     The drops of every fluid affect a round figure.

6. (transitive, archaic) To assign; to appoint.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Thackeray

     One of the domestics was affected to his special service.

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).

• affectingly

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

• enPR: əfĕkt', IPA^(key): /əˈfɛkt/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkt

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 pretence of; to feign; to assume. To make a false display of. [from 16th c.]

   to affect ignorance

   He managed to affect a smile despite feeling quite miserable.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Congreve

     Careless she is with artful care, / Affecting to seem unaffected.

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     Thou dost affect my manners.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To aim for, to try to obtain. [15th-19th c.]
   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     This proud man affects imperial sway.

3. (transitive, now 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,

     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 […].

   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection vii:

     A young gentlewoman in Basil was married […] to an ancient man against her will, whom she could not affect; she was continually melancholy, and pined away for grief […].

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

     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,

     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,

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

• (make a false display of): fake, simulate, feign

• affected
• affectedly
• affectedness
• affectation

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”)

• enPR: ă'fĕkt, IPA^(key): /ˈæ.fɛkt/

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.

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.

• affect display
• flat affect
• labile affect

• affecter
• affective
• affection
• affectionate

• affect in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “affect” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

Borrowed from Latin affectus.

• IPA^(key): /a.fɛkt/

affect m (plural affects)

1. (psychology, philosophy) affect; emotion

• intellect

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

• IPA^(key): /əˈfɛk(t)/

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

affect (plural affects)

1. affect, mood

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