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
- To influence or alter; To move to emotion; Of an...
Ancestry of “affect”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | affect | — |
| 2 | Latin | affectus | affection, mood, emotion, feeling; affection,... |
| 3 | Latin | afficiō | to cause someone to experience something; to visit, inflict, bestow |
| 4 | Latin | faciō | to do |
| 5 | Latin | -torium | nominative neuter singular of -tōrius; accusative... |
| 6 | Latin | -tōrius | ory |
| 7 | Latin | -tor | -er |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | -tōr | Forms agent nouns to verb stems |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -tōr | Derives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone... |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | -tor-s | — |