Affect vs Thing - What's the difference?
affect | thing |
To influence or alter.
* Macaulay
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
, author=Steven Sloman, volume=100, issue=1, page=74, magazine=(American Scientist)
, title= To move to emotion.
* Edmund Burke
Of an illness or condition, to infect or harm (a part of the body).
(archaic) To dispose or incline.
* Milton
(archaic) To tend to by affinity or disposition.
* Newton
(archaic) To assign; to appoint.
* Thackeray
(obsolete) To aim for, to try to obtain.
* Dryden
* 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , VI.10:
*, I.2.4.vii:
* 1663 , (Samuel Butler), :
* Fuller
(obsolete) To show a fondness for (something); to choose.
*1603 , (John Florio), translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays , III.9:
*:Amongst humane conditions this one is very common, that we are rather pleased with strange things then with our owne; we love changes, affect alterations, and like innovations.
* Shakespeare
* Hazlitt
To make a show of; to put on a pretence of; to feign; to assume. To make a false display of.
* Congreve
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) One's mood or inclination; mental state.
(obsolete) A desire, an appetite.
(psychology) A subjective feeling experienced in response to a thought or other stimulus; mood, emotion, especially as demonstrated in external physical signs.
* 1999 , Joyce Crick, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams , Oxford 2008, p. 62:
* 2004 , Jeffrey Greenberg & Thomas A Pyszczynski, Handbook of Experimental Existential Psychology , p. 407:
That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
, volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity.
An individual object or distinct entity.
(informal) Something that is normal or generally recognised.
(legal) Whatever can be owned.
The latest fad or fashion.
(in the plural) Clothes, possessions or equipment.
(informal) A unit or container, usually containing edible goods.
(informal) A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor.
(slang) A penis.
* 1959 , , (Naked Lunch) , 50th anniversary edition (2009),
A living being or creature.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= That which matters; the crux.
* 1914 , Eugene Gladstone O'Neill,
(chiefly, historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country.
* 1974 , Jón Jóhannesson, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Íslendinga Saga , translated by Haraldur Bessason, page 46:
* 1974', Jakob Benediktsson, ''Landnám og upphaf allsherjarríkis'', in ''Saga Íslands'', quoted in '''1988 by Jesse L. Byock in ''Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power , page 85:
* 1988 , Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power , page 59:
As nouns the difference between affect and thing
is that affect is (obsolete) one's mood or inclination; mental state while thing is (chiefly|historical) a public assembly or judicial council in a germanic country.As a verb affect
is to influence or alter or affect can be (obsolete|transitive) to aim for, to try to obtain.affect
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) affecter, (etyl) affecter, and its source, the participle stem of (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- The experience affected me deeply.
- The heat of the sunlight affected the speed of the chemical reaction.
- The climate affected their health and spirits.
The Battle Between Intuition and Deliberation, passage=Libertarian paternalism is the view that, because the way options are presented to citizens affects what they choose, society should present options in a way that “nudges” our intuitive selves to make choices that are more consistent with what our more deliberative selves would have chosen if they were in control.}}
- He was deeply affected by the tragic ending of the play.
- A consideration of the rationale of our passions seems to me very necessary for all who would affect them upon solid and pure principles.
- Hepatitis affects the liver.
- men whom they thought best affected to religion and their country's liberty
- The drops of every fluid affect a round figure.
- One of the domestics was affected to his special service.
Usage notes
Affect'' and effect are sometimes confused. ''Affect'' conveys influence over something that already exists, but ''effect indicates the manifestation of new or original ideas or entities: * “...new policies have effected major changes in government.” * “...new policies have affected major changes in government.” The former indicates that major changes were made as a result of new policies, while the latter indicates that before new policies, major changes were in place, and that the new policies had some influence over these existing changes. The verbal noun uses of affect'' are distinguished from the verbal noun uses of ''effect'' more clearly than the regular verb forms. An ''affect'' is something that acts or acted upon something else. However, an ''effect is the result of an action (by something else).Synonyms
* (influence or alter) alter, change, have an effect on, have an impact on, influence * (move to emotion) move, touch * (infect) attackDerived terms
* affectinglyEtymology 2
From (etyl) (see Etymology 1, above).Verb
(en verb)- This proud man affects imperial sway.
- From that day forth she gan to him affect , / And daily more her favour to augment […].
- A young gentlewoman in Basil was marriedto an ancient man against her will, whom she could not affect ; she was continually melancholy, and pined away for grief […].
- But when he pleased to show 't, his speech / In loftiness of sound was rich; / A Babylonish dialect, / Which learned pedants much affect .
- As for Queen Katharine, he rather respected than affected , rather honoured than loved, her.
- For he does neither affect company, nor is he fit for it, indeed.
- Do not affect the society of your inferiors in rank, nor court that of the great.
- to affect ignorance
- He managed to affect a smile despite feeling quite miserable.
- Careless she is with artful care, / Affecting to seem unaffected.
- Thou dost affect my manners.
Synonyms
* (make a false display of) fake, simulate, feignDerived terms
* affected * affectedly * affectedness * affectationEtymology 3
(etyl) affect, from (etyl) affectus,Noun
(en noun)- if we are afraid of robbers in a dream, the robbers are certainly imaginary, but the fear is real. This draws our attention to the fact that the development of affects in dreams is not amenable to the judgement we make of the rest of the dream-content [...].
- A third study demonstrated that the effects of self-affirmation on self-regulated performance were not due to positive affect .
Usage notes
Affect'' and effect can both be used as nouns or verbs, but when used as a noun the word ''affect'' is limited to the above psychology uses and the definitions for ''effect are much more common. See also the above.Derived terms
* affect display * flat affect * labile affectthing
English
Noun
(en noun)The tao of tech, passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […], "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.}}
p. 126:
- “Oh Gertie it’s true. It’s all true. They’ve got a horrid gash instead of a thrilling thing .”
Revenge of the nerds, passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}
The Movie Man][playscript:
- Don’t forget to have Gomez postpone that shooting thing . (in reference to the execution of Fernandez)
- In accordance with Old Germanic custom men came to the thing fully armed, [...]
- The goðar'' seem both to have received payment of ''thing-fararkaup from those who stayed home and at the same time compensated those who went to the thing , and it cannot be seen whether they had any profit from these transactions.
- All Icelandic things were skap-thing , meaning that they were governed by established procedure and met at regular legally designated intevals at predetermined meeting places.
