# affection

Pronunciation: say "uh-FEK-shuhn" /əˈfɛk.ʃən/

## Noun

1. A feeling of love or strong attachment toward someone or something.
   - Simple: A warm feeling of love you have for someone or something.
   - _Years of shared hardship deepened their affection for one another._
   - _He always spoke of his hometown with unmistakable affection._
2. An emotion; a feeling or natural impulse that acts on the mind and sways it.
   - Simple: A strong feeling that moves you and changes how you think.
   - _Philosophers once sorted the affections of the soul into love, hate, hope, and fear._
   - _Pity is an affection that arises naturally at the sight of suffering._
3. The state of being affected; a change in someone's emotional state arising in response to a thought or perception.
   - Simple: A change in how someone feels, caused by something they think about or notice.
   - _The therapist tracked each affection that surfaced as the patient recalled the event._
   - _Every perception leaves some affection on the mind, however slight._
4. The act of affecting something, or of acting upon it.
   - Simple: The act of one thing having an effect on another.
   - _In classical physics, the affection of a body by an outside force changes its motion._
   - _He described perception as the affection of the senses by the world around us._
5. An attribute, quality, or property of something; a condition it is in.
   - Simple: A quality, feature, or condition that belongs to something.
   - _Geometers treat curvature as an affection of a curve._
   - _In old philosophy, heat and cold were counted among the affections of matter._

## Noun

6. A disease, morbid symptom, or other bodily disorder. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: An illness or harmful condition affecting part of the body.
   - _The physician diagnosed a chronic affection of the liver._
   - _Old medical texts describe nervous affections treated with rest and tonics._

## Verb

7. To feel tender fondness or love for someone or something. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To feel love or fondness toward a person or thing.

## Origin

From Middle English affection, borrowed through Old French affection from Latin affectiōnem (from affectiō); equivalent to affect + -ion.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/affection (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).