affectation

noun

af·​fec·​ta·​tion ˌa-ˌfek-ˈtā-shən 

1

a

: speech or conduct not natural to oneself : an unnatural form of behavior meant especially to impress others

His French accent is just an affectation.

b

: the act of taking on or displaying an attitude or mode of behavior not natural to oneself or not genuinely felt

speaking honestly without affectation

mocked his piety as affectation

2

obsolete : a striving after

Did you know?

Affectation and Affection

Affectation looks a lot like a much more common word, affection. But the two are used very differently.

The more familiar word, affection, in modern use means "a feeling of liking and caring for someone or something," as in "They show their dog a lot of affection."

Affectation, on the other hand, refers to a form of behavior that's unnatural to the person engaging in it, and that is meant to impress other people. A phony accent someone uses to sound more sophisticated, for example, can be considered an affectation, as can pretending to know all about some obscure band in order to seem cool.

The words don't have much in common in their use, but their similarity in appearance is not coincidence. Both have to do with one of the trickiest words in the language: affect.

Affect is one of the most frequently looked-up words in the dictionary, primarily because of its regular confusion with effect. The short rationale that you often hear when it comes to distinguishing the two is that effect is usually a noun and affect is a verb. The breakdown isn't all that simple, however, and what makes things even more confusing is that there are two verb entries for affect.

One affect entry is for the sense meaning "to produce an effect upon (someone)" or "to act upon (a person, a person's mind or feelings, etc.) so as to effect a response." This is the sense that connects to affection, as in "We were affected by the young woman's heartfelt speech." Being affected by something in this way doesn't necessarily result in affection, but it can.

The other verb affect is defined as "to make a display of liking or using : cultivate" or "to put a pretense on : feign." It is used when talking about things like styles or mannerisms, as in "He affected a British accent and tweedy look after reading nothing but Sherlock Holmes stories for months on end."

The two verbs affect took different etymological paths from the same origin. The "put on a pretense" sense of affect derives via Middle English and Anglo-French from the Latin affectāre, meaning "to try to accomplish, strive after, pretend to have." Affectāre is a derivative of afficere, which means "to produce an effect on, exert an influence on"; the affect related to affection is from a variant of afficere.

Synonyms

• affectedness
• grandiosity
• inflation
• pretense
• pretence
• pretension
• pretentiousness

Choose the Right Synonym for affectation

pose, air, airs, affectation, mannerism mean an adopted way of speaking or behaving.

pose implies an attitude deliberately assumed in order to impress others.

her shyness was just a pose

air may suggest natural acquirement through environment or way of life.

a traveler's sophisticated air

airs always implies artificiality and pretentiousness.

snobbish airs

affectation applies to a trick of speech or behavior that strikes the observer as insincere.

the posh accent is an affectation

mannerism applies to an acquired eccentricity that has become a habit.

gesturing with a cigarette was her most noticeable mannerism

Examples of affectation in a Sentence

His French accent is just an affectation.

a woman of great affectation at social gatherings

Recent Examples on the Web

Strangely, the results come off as a directorial affectation, a willful cramping of her style. —Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 3 Oct. 2024

There’s no meaningful sense of escalation to the staging, and the performer’s skill and physical sacrifice is often diminished by geysers of digital blood, along with other CGI affectations that distract from the dynamism at hand. —David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 14 Sep. 2024

Even Truman Capote had some of that affectation in real life, or Tennesse Williams. —Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 4 Sep. 2024

In a transfixing performance that balances colorful affectation with raw hunger, the actor makes Lee a magnetic raconteur whose shield of worldly composure falls away as Eugene (Drew Starkey) eludes his grasp, leaving him a virtual ghost by the end of the film. —David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French & Latin; Middle French affectation, borrowed from Latin affectātiōn-, affectātiō "striving after, strained manner (in rhetoric)," from affectāre "to strive after, try to accomplish, pretend to have" + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of action nouns — more at affect entry 2

First Known Use

1548, in the meaning defined at sense 1b

Kids Definition

affectation

noun

af·​fec·​ta·​tion ˌaf-ˌek-ˈtā-shən 

: an unnatural form of behavior usually intended to impress others

the accent was an affectation