afflict

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English afflighten,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin afflīgō (“to dash or knock down, ruin, distress”), through its past participle afflīctus.^[5][4][3][6] Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary see the verb as made from a Middle English participial adjective, afflight,^[3][4][2] and the OED derives the adjective partly from Old French aflit, which may explain those spellings.^[5] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English allow the frequentative afflīctō (“to knock about, harass”) as a source,^[7][8][9] and Klein and Etymonline prefer it, Etymonline through aflicter;^[10][11] the OED finds that French verb only as a rarity.^[5] The Latin verb is formed from ad- (“to”) and flīgō (“to strike, dash”).^{[5][4][11][10]} Etymonline reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *bhlig- (“to strike”), and it and Klein compare Ancient Greek φλίβειν (phlíbein, “to press, crush”) and Welsh blif (“catapult”).^[11][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To distress or excite, in Gower's Confessio Amantis (before 1393): a marvel that so sorely aflihte a man's heart.^[2][5] In the same poem it also means to become downcast or distressed, intransitively.^[5][2][12]

Semantic evolution

Several sources describe the earliest English sense as "cast down" or "deject", close to the Latin "dash down",^{[11][9][13][8]} a use still found in Milton's afflicted powers.^[3][8] Etymonline and Ayto date the weakened sense "torment, distress" only to the 1530s or the early 16th century,^[11][13] but the revised OED has it from Gower.^[5] A disease or condition has been said to afflict someone since 1549.^[5] In the Geneva Bible and the King James Bible, afflict translated a Hebrew word for humbling oneself or chastising, and the OED ends that sense in 1611;^[5][3] Johnson (1755) still quoted ye shall afflict your souls from Leviticus under "to put to pain, to grieve".^[14] Astrologers used it from 1583 of an inauspicious planetary aspect.^[5] The adjective afflict, overwhelmed with trouble, lasted from before 1393 to 1593, and the noun from about 1529 to 1560.^[5][8]

Timeline

• before 1393 – to distress with continued suffering; also, adjective, overwhelmed with trouble.^[5]
• c. 1529 – noun, an affliction (obsolete by 1560).^[5]
• 1549 – of a disease or condition, to affect, make ill.^[5]
• 1561 – to humble one's soul, to chastise (obsolete after 1611).^[5]
• 1583 – in astrology, to affect by an inauspicious aspect.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cause continued physical or mental suffering to; to torment or distress: Doubts afflicted him for years.^[6][3][5]
2. Of a disease or condition, to affect or make ill.^[5]
3. In astrology, to affect by a harmful aspect of a planet.^[5]
4. To strike down or overthrow; to cast down (obsolete).^[3][8]
5. To humble oneself or one's soul (obsolete, 1561–1611).^[5][3]

Word family

• afflicter
• afflictive
• afflictively
• afflictedness

Related words

• affliction
• inflict
• conflict
• profligate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.