Other forms: affairs
An affair is a matter to be dealt with, or a secret romance. Foreign affairs, a family affair, having an affair.
The plural means business generally — current affairs, affairs of state — and the singular with an article usually means the romance. An affair to remember is one sense and an affair of honour another. Note that the word comes from the French a faire, meaning to do, so an affair is literally something to be done.
1nounaffairA matter to be dealt with.
“How I spend my own money is my affair, not yours.”
2nounsecretA secret romance.
“His wife found out about the affair and left him.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
affair is a matter, or a romance.
Old French afaire comes from a faire, to do, from Latin ad plus facere. Ado is the same idea in English.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeh₁-
Old French
afaire
Middle English
afere
English, today
affair
Built from
From Middle English afere, from Old French afaire. From Middle English afere, affere, from Old French afaire, from a- + faire (“to do”), from Latin ad- + facere (“to do”). See fact, and compare ado.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA