Affect vs Improve - What's the difference?
affect | improve |
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:
(lb) To make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something).
:
:
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (lb) To become better.
:
:
*
*:“My Continental prominence is improving ,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
(lb) To disprove or make void; to refute.
*(William Tyndale) (1494-1536)
*:Neither can any of them make so strong a reason which another cannot improve .
(lb) To disapprove of; to find fault with; to reprove; to censure.
:
:(Chapman)
*(William Tyndale) (1494-1536)
*:When he rehearsed his preachings and his doing unto the high apostles, they could improve nothing.
(lb) To use or employ to good purpose; to turn to profitable account.
:
*(Isaac Barrow) (1630-1677)
*:We shall especially honour God by improving diligently the talents which God hath committed to us.
*(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
*:a hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved
*(William Blackstone) (1723-1780)
*:The court seldom fails to improve the opportunity.
*(Isaac Watts) (1674-1748)
*:How doth the little busy bee / Improve each shining hour.
*(George Washington) (1732-1799)
*:True policy, as well as good faith, in my opinion, binds us to improve the occasion.
As verbs the difference between affect and improve
is that affect is to influence or alter or affect can be (obsolete|transitive) to aim for, to try to obtain while improve is (lb) to make (something) better; to increase the value or productivity (of something).As a noun affect
is (obsolete) one's mood or inclination; mental state.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 affectimprove
English
Alternative forms
* emprove (obsolete)Verb
(improv)Engineers of a different kind, passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}