Other forms: afflicted, afflicting, afflicts
To afflict is to cause somebody lasting pain or trouble. Afflicted with arthritis, afflict the poor, the region was afflicted.
It is nearly always passive — people are afflicted by things rather than afflicting them — and the trouble is lasting rather than momentary. Some disability writers avoid afflicted with, preferring has, because it casts the person as a victim.
1verbafflictTo cause somebody lasting pain or trouble.
“A mysterious illness afflicted the cattle on several farms.”
afflict is a causing of suffering.
Latin affligere means to strike down — ad plus fligere, to strike. Conflict comes from the same striking.
Latin
afflictāre
Middle English
afflicten
English, today
afflict
Built from
From Middle English afflicten, from Latin afflictāre. From Middle English afflicten (attested in past participle afflicte), from Latin afflīctō (“to damage, harass, torment”), from ad- + flīctus, past participle of afflīgō (“strike, beat”), from ad- + flīgō (whence af-).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA