Other forms: afflictions
An affliction is something that causes lasting pain or trouble. Bear the affliction, a rare affliction, an affliction of the eyes.
It is formal and slightly old-fashioned, and it is used of illnesses and of hardships that must be endured rather than fixed. The verb afflict is commoner: people are afflicted by a condition, and the phrasing is deliberately passive.
1nounafflictionSomething that causes lasting pain or trouble.
“Blindness was an affliction she bore with great courage.”
affliction is a trouble.
Latin afflictio comes from affligere, to strike down — ad, to, plus fligere, to strike.
Latin
afflīctiō — pain, suffering, torment
Old French
afliction
Middle English
affliction
English, today
affliction
Built from
From Middle English affliction, affliccioun, from Old French afliction, borrowed from Latin afflīctiō (“pain, suffering, torment”), from Latin afflīctō (“to damage, harass, torment”), from ad- + flīctus, past participle of afflīgō (“strike, beat”), from ad- + flīgō (whence af-). by surface analysis, afflict + -ion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA