[f. L. affīliāt- ppl. stem of affīliā-re to adopt; f. af- = ad- to + fīli-us a son; app. in imitation of mod.Fr. affilier (ad. affīliāre).]
I. Of adopting into the position of a child.
1. To adopt as a child: but always fig. of a parent institution adopting or attaching others to itself as branches, or of a society adopting a member.
1797. W. Taylor, in Monthly Rev., XXIII. 530. The sophists of rebellion … affiliated an antient sect, the machinations of which formed the secrets of the artere or occult lodges of free masonry.
1860. Times, 30 Nov., 6/5. Why does not the great firm of Messrs. Streatfeild and Co. still send out its emissaries, establish Continental agencies, and affiliate provincial tan-yards?
2. To attach a smaller institution to, or connect it with, a larger one as a branch thereof; to unite or attach a member formally to a society. Const. to, with, according as the idea of filial union, or connection, is thought of.
1761. Smollett, Gil Blas, I. i. (Routl.), 171. The very sharpers with whom I had been affiliated at Toledo.
1794. W. Burke, in Burke’s Wks., 1842, VII. 318. The great patriarchal jacobiniere of Paris, to which they were (to use their own term) affiliated.
1880. M. L. Meason, in Macm. Mag., 426. Ampleforth has only been affiliated to the London University during the last four years.
b. refl.
1866. Spect., 1 Dec., 1332. That colleges … be allowed to affiliate themselves to the University of Oxford.
c. intr. (refl. pron. omitted.) To connect or associate oneself with; to rank oneself under the banners of.
1860. Times, 28 Nov., 10/1. The party in the South that affiliates with the Republicans.
1879. Tourgee, Fool’s Errand, xxi. 125. To affiliate somewhat coolly with the party of reconstruction.
II. Of imputing or fixing as the child.
3. Law. To fix the paternity of an illegitimate child on the putative father (for the purpose of maintenance). In this sense apparently introduced by the Act cited below; the term in previous Acts was filiate. Hence gen. To refer or ascribe (a child) to its proper parent.
1834. Act 4 & 5 Will. IV., lxxvi. § 69. To charge or affiliate any such Child or Children on any Person as the reputed or putative Father thereof.
1836. W. Robinson, Justice of Peace, II. vi. 539. In that year a bastard child was affiliated upon him.
1844. A. S. Taylor, Med. Jurisp., lxix. There would be no medical ground for affiliating the child to one man rather than the other.
1868. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, vi. (1870), 172. Sarpedon, who is directly affiliated to Zeus.
4. fig. To father on or upon, attribute to, trace origin to.
1844. H. Rogers, Ess., I. ii. 84. The compositions which Captain Thomson’s indiscriminate admiration would fain have affiliated to his muse.
1855. H. Spencer, Psychol. (1872), I. III. iv. 311. How do these facts … affiliate the faculty of hearing on the primary vital processes?
1872. E. Robertson, Hist. Ess., 194. Our venerable Abbey of Westminster, when … in search of a pedigree, sought to affiliate itself upon the Archbishop [Dunstan].
