Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “affect” come from?

Affect comes from Middle English affect, from Latin affectus, the past participle of afficere, meaning "to influence or act upon," from ad- "to" and facere "to do."

affect (English): To influence or alter; To move to emotion; Of an...

Definitions

  1. To influence or alter; To move to emotion; Of an...

Ancestry of “affect”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishaffect—
2Latinaffectusaffection, mood, emotion, feeling; affection,...
3Latinafficiō—
4Latinfaciō—
5Latin-toriumnominative neuter singular of -tōrius; accusative...
6Latin-tōrius—
7Latin-tor-er
8Proto-Italic-tōr—
9Proto-Indo-European-tōrDerives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone...
10Proto-Indo-European-tor-s—

Words derived from “affect”

  • disaffected
  • disaffection
  • affecter
  • affectless
  • disaffect
  • affecteth
  • affectability
  • affector
  • affectee
  • affectlessness
  • affectable
  • disaffectedly
  • affectest
  • disaffectation
  • disaffectedness
  • unaffect
  • unaffectable
  • affectlessly
  • overaffect
  • pseudobulbar affect
  • misaffect
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tor-s →