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affair

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /əˈfeə/, US /əˈfer/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English afere, borrowed from Anglo-Norman afere, borrowed from Old French afaire (“business, event; rank”) (modern French affaire),[2][3][4] from the phrase à faire (“to do”),[2][3][5] from Latin ad (“to”) and facere (“to do, make”),[2][4] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to set, put”).[4] The spelling with one f was remodelled as affaire in Middle French after Latin words in aff-, and Caxton popularized it in England.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

What one has to do, business: about 1300 in the OED and Etymonline,[6][4] probably before 1300 in Barnhart, in the plural aferes, things to do.[2] The OED calls it originally a northern word.[4]

Semantic evolution

Its history runs parallel to that of ado, from Old Norse at “to” and do, and to that of to-do.[7][2][3] The ordinary business of life is from 1484, commercial or professional business from 1519, and public business, the affairs of a nation, from 1605.[6] A thing that concerns someone, as in that's my affair, is from 1611.[6] Vaguely, any proceeding or event, in romance or war, is attested by 1702,[4][6] and of a material thing, as the house was a wooden affair, from 1802.[6] A love affair is from French affaire de cœur, used in English from 1809;[4] to have an affair with someone is by 1726, and earlier to have an affair of love (1716).[4] An affair of honour, a duel, is now archaic.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1300 – business, what one has to do.[6][4]
  • 1484 – the business of life.[6]
  • 1605 – public affairs.[6]
  • 1702 – an event, a proceeding.[4][6]
  • 1726 – to have an affair.[4]
  • 1802 – a thing, a contrivance.[6]
  • 1809 – affaire de cœur.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A matter, thing to be done, or concern: that is my affair.
  2. (affairs) Business or transactions, private or public: foreign affairs.
  3. An event or occurrence, especially one that causes public interest or scandal.
  4. A sexual relationship between two people, especially when one is married to someone else.
  5. A social occasion or function.
  6. (informal) An object of a specified kind: the house was a ramshackle affair.

Word family

  • love affair
  • ado
  • to-do
  • affaire
  • fact
  • feat

Usage notes

The AHD groups affair with business, concern and lookout, all meaning something that involves one personally, as in it's not my affair.[9]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin