noun
- fond attachment, devotion, or love: the affection of a parent for an only child.
- Often affections.
- emotion; feeling; sentiment: over and above our reason and affections.
- the emotional realm of love: a place in his affections.
- Pathology. a disease, or the condition of being diseased; abnormal state of body or mind: a gouty affection.
- the act of affecting; act of influencing or acting upon.
- the state of being affected.
- Philosophy. a contingent, alterable, and accidental state or quality of being.
- the affective aspect of a mental process.
- bent or disposition of mind.
- Obsolete. bias; prejudice.
noun
- a feeling of fondness or tenderness for a person or thing; attachment
- (often plural) emotion, feeling, or sentimentto play on a person’s affections
- pathol any disease or pathological condition
- psychol any form of mental functioning that involves emotionSee also affect 1 (def. 2)
- the act of affecting or the state of being affected
- archaic inclination or disposition
early 13c., “an emotion of the mind, passion, lust as opposed to reason,” from Old French afection (12c.) “emotion, inclination, disposition; love, attraction, enthusiasm,” from Latin affectionem (nominative affectio) “a relation, disposition; a temporary state; a frame, constitution,” noun of state from past participle stem of afficere “to do something to, act on” (see affect (n.)). Sense developed from “disposition” to “good disposition toward” (late 14c.). Related: Affections.
n.
- A tender feeling toward another; fondness.
- A bodily condition; disease.