affinitas

Forms

affīnitās f (genitive affīnitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin affīnis (“neighbouring; related by marriage”) + -tās.^[2][1] affīnis is made from fīnis (“boundary”), whose further etymology de Vaan calls disputed.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it in the Trinummus for a relationship by marriage, of a man who wants to bring about such a tie between two families.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense was kinship by marriage, as opposed to blood relationship, and, used concretely, one's relations by marriage.^[2][4] Varro already applies it to a connection between things, the sense of English affinity.^[2]

In ecclesiastical law it named a relationship, spiritual or of blood, that is an impediment to marriage, attested from about 1092.^[5] Medieval Latin also used it in the literal sense of neighbourhood or adjacency, of land and dwellings.^[6][7] English took affinity through Old French around 1300, first as “relation by marriage”.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has it for a marriage connection and for relations by marriage.^[2][9]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a connection between things.^[2][9]
• 974 – A charter uses it for the neighbourhood of a piece of land.^[6]
• c. 1092 – It is used of a relationship that bars a marriage.^[5]
• c. 1300 – English borrows affinity through Old French.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Relationship by marriage, affinity; a marriage connection.^[2][4]
2. (concrete) Relations by marriage.^[2]
3. A relationship or bond between things.^[2]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A spiritual or blood relationship that is an impediment to marriage.^[5]
5. (Medieval Latin) Neighbourhood, adjacency.^[6][7]

Related words

• English affinity

Usage notes

An inscription of the Republican period has the spelling atfinitate.^[2] L&S notes a genitive plural adfinitatium in Justinus.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de