affectation
noun
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Affectation and Affection
Affectation looks a lot like a much more common word, affection. But the two are used very differently.
The more familiar word, affection, in modern use means "a feeling of liking and caring for someone or something," as in "They show their dog a lot of affection."
Affectation, on the other hand, refers to a form of behavior that's unnatural to the person engaging in it, and that is meant to impress other people. A phony accent someone uses to sound more sophisticated, for example, can be considered an affectation, as can pretending to know all about some obscure band in order to seem cool.
The words don't have much in common in their use, but their similarity in appearance is not coincidence. Both have to do with one of the trickiest words in the language: affect.
Affect is one of the most frequently looked-up words in the dictionary, primarily because of its regular confusion with effect. The short rationale that you often hear when it comes to distinguishing the two is that effect is usually a noun and affect is a verb. The breakdown isn't all that simple, however, and what makes things even more confusing is that there are two verb entries for affect.
One affect entry is for the sense meaning "to produce an effect upon (someone)" or "to act upon (a person, a person's mind or feelings, etc.) so as to effect a response." This is the sense that connects to affection, as in "We were affected by the young woman's heartfelt speech." Being affected by something in this way doesn't necessarily result in affection, but it can.
The other verb affect is defined as "to make a display of liking or using : cultivate" or "to put a pretense on : feign." It is used when talking about things like styles or mannerisms, as in "He affected a British accent and tweedy look after reading nothing but Sherlock Holmes stories for months on end."
The two verbs affect took different etymological paths from the same origin. The "put on a pretense" sense of affect derives via Middle English and Anglo-French from the Latin affectāre, meaning "to try to accomplish, strive after, pretend to have." Affectāre is a derivative of afficere, which means "to produce an effect on, exert an influence on"; the affect related to affection is from a variant of afficere.
Synonyms
Examples of affectation in a Sentence
Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 25 Oct. 2024
Strangely, the results come off as a directorial affectation, a willful cramping of her style.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 3 Oct. 2024
There’s no meaningful sense of escalation to the staging, and the performer’s skill and physical sacrifice is often diminished by geysers of digital blood, along with other CGI affectations that distract from the dynamism at hand.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 14 Sep. 2024
Even Truman Capote had some of that affectation in real life, or Tennesse Williams.
—Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 4 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for affectation 
Articles Related to affectation
Dictionary Entries Near affectation
Cite this Entry
“Affectation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affectation. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
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affectation
noun
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