Also 7–8 affector. [f. AFFECT v.1 + -ER.]
† 1. One who has an affection for, a lover. Obs.
1568. C. Watson, Polyb., 16 b. I think they were deceyved (as affectoures are accustomed).
1590. Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., V. ii. Madam, your father, and the Arabian King The first affecter of your excellence, Come now.
1622. Heylin, Cosmogr. (1682), II. 178. Famous for Government, affectors of Freedom.
1638. Venner, Tobacco (1650), 404. These idle affectors of Tobacco.
2. A professed adherent or practiser (of anything); an ostentatious or pretentious user, possessor or professor.
1580. 2nd & 3rd Blast (1869), 100. A great affecter of that vaine Art of plaie making.
1628. Earle, Microcosm., xlii. 93. A great affecter of wits and such prettinesses.
1660. T. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 87/2. Vain affecters of Words, ignorant of those things which they professed.
1723. Blackall, Wks., I. 499. Our Saviour was no Affecter of Novelty in Devotion.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 20, ¶ 14. The affector of great excellencies.
1830. Coleridge, Ch. & St., 168. There are few [charges], if any, that I should be more anxious to avoid than that of being an affecter of paradoxes.
† 3. absol. An affected person. Obs.
1607. P. C., trans. H. Stephen’s World of Wonders, 238. Neither can these fine finicall affecters alleadge the Italian tongue … to warrant their pronunciation.
1611. Cotgr., Affectateur, an affector; one that (curiously) imitates a fashion, or takes on him a habit, which either becomes or befits him not.
