From Middle English affection, affeccion, affeccioun, from Old French affection, from Latin affectiōnem, from affectiō; equivalent to affect + -ion.

• IPA: /əˈfɛk.ʃən/, /əˈfɛk.t͡ʃən/

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.
3. 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.

4. An emotion; a feeling or natural impulse acting upon and swaying the mind.
   • 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.

5. A feeling of love or strong attachment.

   I have a lot of affection for my little sister.

   The marriage therapist suggested they show each other more affection.

   • 1813 January 26, [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.

   • 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.

6. (medicine, archaic) A disease; a morbid symptom; a malady.
   • 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 […]

• (kind feeling) attachment, fondness, kindness, love, passion, tenderness

• Portuguese: afetação
• Spanish: afecto

• German: Zuneigung
• Italian: affetto
• Portuguese: afeição
• Russian: эмоция

• German: Rührung, Zuneigung
• Portuguese: afeição, afeto
• Russian: любо́вь
• Spanish: cariño, apego, afecto

• Portuguese: afecção

affection (affections, present participle affectioning; simple past and past participle affectioned)

1. (now, rare) 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.