Obs. [ad. L. affectu-s, n. of completed action, f. affic-ĕre to act upon, dispose, constitute.] Disposition or constitution.
I. Mental.
1. The way in which one is affected or disposed; mental state, mood, feeling, desire, intention.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, III. 1342. And therto dronken had as hotte and stronge As Cresus did, for his affectes wronge.
1528. Roy, Rede me (Arb.), 117. Goode christen men with pure affecte.
1531. Elyot, Gov. (1557), II. vii. 104. Contrary to his owne affectes and determinate purposes.
1533. Tindale, Supper of the Lord, Wks. III. 266. God is searcher of heart and reins, thoughts and affects.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 351. She gaue a dolefull way to her bitter affects.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 97. The affects and Passions of the Heart and Spirits, are notably disclosed by the Pulse.
esp. b. Inward disposition, feeling, as contrasted with external manifestation or action; intent, intention, earnest, reality. Contrasted with chere or outward appearance; and with effect or result.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 5489. Fully to knowen, without were, Freend of affect, and freend of chere.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., V. v. 509. This man ouȝte loue in affect and in effect his owne bodi more than the bodi of his fadir.
1552. Latimer, Serm. in Linc., vii. 127. Restitution must be made eyther in effect or affect, thou must be sorry in thy hart and aske God forgiueness.
1591. Florio, Second Frutes, 35. I accept the affect, in lieu of the effect.
1615. T. Adams, Lycanthr., 6. Reall in his right, in his might: Royall in his affects and effects.
c. Feeling, desire or appetite, as opposed to reason; passion, lust, evil-desire.
1531. Elyot, Governour (1580), 109. Temperance … is the moderatrice … of al motions of the minde, called affects.
1545. Joye, Expos. Daniel iv. G 4. These flaterers so nyghe them in fauour, feding their affectes.
1591. Greene, Maidens Dreame, xxv. He bridled those affects that might offend.
1619. Middleton, Temple Masque, Wks. V. 144. No doubt affects will be subdued with reason.
d. Biased feeling, partiality.
1557. Earl Surrey, in Tottell’s Misc. (Arb.), 29. An eye, whose iudgement none affect could blinde.
2. Disposition, temper, natural tendency.
1541. Elyot, Im. Govern., 35. To knowe the sundry wittes, maners, affectes, and studies of men.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., I. i. 152. For euery man with his affects is borne.
1592. Greene, Conny catching, Pref. i. Time refineth mens affects.
1606. Bryskett, Civill Life, 50. Plato … distinguisheth these two affects, into both these faculties of the soule.
3. esp. Feeling towards or in favor of; kind feeling, affection.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Affecte, or welwyllynge, Affectus.
1543. Becon, Policy of War, Wks. 1843, 234. Her private affect toward her children.
1586. J. Hooker, Giraldus’s Hist. Irel., in Holinsh., II. 55/1. Vtterlie void of that affect, which is naturallie ingraffed in man.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. iv. 30. Wooing poore Craftesmen, with the craft of soules … As ’twere, to banish their affects with him.
1596. Southwell (title), Consolatorie Epistle for afflicted minds, in the affects of dying friends.
1633. Ford, Loves Sacrif., I. ii. (1839), 78. Madam, I observe, In your affects, a thing to me most strange.
4. An affectation, a trick.
1588. Fraunce, Lawiers Logike, I. v. 31 b. This were an affect of an extemporall Rhetor to salute a man by name without premeditation.
II. Physical.
5. The way in which a thing is physically affected or disposed; especially, the actual state or disposition of the body.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. ix. § 3 (1873). How far the humours and affects of the body do alter or work upon the mind. Ibid. (1626), Sylva, § 835. The true passages and processes and affects and consistencies of matter and natural bodies.
1679. Brian, Pisse-proph., 7. The symptoms and affects of the sick party.
6. esp. A state of body opposed to the normal; indisposition, distemper, malady, disease; ‘affection.’
1533. Elyot, Castel of Helth (1541), 54. Vomyte amendeth the affectes of the raynes.
1563. T. Gale, Antidot., II. 9. Very precious in burnings and scaldings and lyke affectes.
1616. Surflet & Markh., Countrey Farme, 245. It is of great vse for the affects of the lungs.
1679. trans. Willis’s Pharm. Ration., in Blount’s Nat. Hist. (1693), 112. Who presently after drinking Coffee became worse as to those Affects.
