Other forms: affections
Affection is gentle steady fondness for somebody or something. Great affection, a term of affection, she remembers him with affection.
It is warmer than liking and calmer than love, and that middle position is exactly its use: affection describes what long friendships and old dogs get. It is usually uncountable; affections in the plural is dated and slightly literary. The adjective affectionate describes both people and gestures — an affectionate letter — and note that affectation is a completely different word meaning a mannerism put on for show.
1nounaffectionGentle steady fondness for somebody or something.
“She spoke about the place with real affection.”
synonyms: fondness, warmth, tenderness
2nounactAn act showing fondness.
“He is not one for public displays of affection.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
affection is a warm feeling.
Latin affectio meant a state of mind or a disposition, from afficere, to influence — the same root as affect. Affection was originally any state of feeling, and English narrowed it to the fond ones.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeh₁-
Latin
affectiōnem
Old French
affection
Middle English
affection
English, today
affection
From Middle English affection, affeccion, affeccioun, from Old French affection, from Latin affectiōnem, from affectiō; equivalent to affect + ion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA