- To have an influence on or effect a change in: Inflation affects the buying power of the dollar.
- To act on the emotions of; touch or move.
- To attack or infect, as a disease: Rheumatic fever can affect the heart.
- Feeling or emotion, especially as manifested by facial expression or body language: "The soldiers seen on television had been carefully chosen for blandness of affect" (Norman Mailer).
- Obsolete. A disposition, feeling, or tendency.
[Middle English affecten, from Latin afficere, affect-, to do to, act on : ad-, ad- + facere, to do.]
SYNONYMS affect, influence, impress, touch, move, strike. These verbs mean to produce a mental or emotional effect. To affect is to act upon a person's emotions: Adverse criticism of the book didn't affect the author. Influence implies some control over the thinking, actions, and emotions of another: "Humanity is profoundly influenced by what you do" (Pope John Paul II). To impress is to produce a marked, often enduring effect: "The Tibetan landscape particularly impressed him" (Doris Kerns Quinn). Touch usually means to arouse a tender response: "The tributes (Daniel Cariaga). Move suggests a profound emotional effect: The account of her experiences moved us to tears. Strike implies keenness or force of mental response: I was struck by the sudden change in his appearance.
USAGE NOTE Affect and effect have no senses in common. As a verb affect is most commonly used in the sense of "to influence" (how smoking affects health). Effect means "to bring about or execute": layoffs designed to effect savings. Thus the sentence These measures may affect savings could imply that the measures may reduce savings that have already been realized, whereas These measures may effect savings implies that the measures will cause new savings to come about.
af·fect2 (ə-fĕkt')
tr.v., -fect·ed, -fect·ing, -fects.
- To put on a false show of; simulate: affected a British accent.
- To have or show a liking for: affects dramatic clothes.
- Archaic. To fancy; love.
- To tend to by nature; tend to assume: a substance that affects crystalline form.
- To imitate; copy: "Spenser, in affecting the ancients, writ no language" (Ben Jonson).
[Middle English affecten, from Latin affectāre, to strive after, frequentative of afficere, affect-, to affect, influence. See affect1.]
affecter af·fect'er n.
