affair
[uh-fair]
- anything done or to be done; anything requiring action or effort; business; concern: an affair of great importance.
- affairs, matters of commercial or public interest or concern; the transactions of public or private business or finance: affairs of state; Before taking such a long trip you should put all your affairs in order.
- an event or a performance; a particular action, operation, or proceeding: When did this affair happen?
- thing; matter (applied to anything made or existing, usually with a descriptive or qualifying term): Our new computer is an amazing affair.
- a private or personal concern; a special function, business, or duty: That's none of your affair.
- an intense amorous relationship, usually of short duration.
- an event or happening that occasions or arouses notoriety, dispute, and often public scandal; incident: the Congressional bribery affair.
- a party, social gathering, or other organized festive occasion: The awards ceremony is the biggest affair on the school calendar.
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Origin of affair
1250–1300; earlier affaire < French, Old French afaire for a faire to do, equivalent to a (< Latin ad to) + faire ≪ Latin facere; replacing Middle English afere < Old French
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
caseprojecttransactionproceedingquestiontopicthingincidenttaskinterestemploymenteventsubjectliaisonrelationshipprovincedutyepisodehappeningcircumstanceExamples from the Web for affairs
Contemporary Examples
And that this state of affairs is not just the way things are.
If State of Affairs succeeds, it could change the conversation around Heigl.
Frankly, I have never heard anyone else speak with such insight into Afghan affairs, post-US surge.
Heart of Darkness: Into Afghanistan’s Taliban ValleyMatt Trevithick, Daniel Seckman
November 15, 2014
Cooke writes, “In our conversations among the band she has revealed in a matter-of-fact way that she has had affairs with women.”
Instead, she advocates for a major shift away from a morally-driven condemnation of affairs.
Historical Examples
Here he had prestige because he was the son of Daniel Bines, organiser and man of affairs.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
Be a man of affairs like your pa, and like that fellow Shepler.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
I'm afraid of myself, even in spite of our affairs being so bad.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
You must propose an examination of his affairs on the part of the church.
I had but to demand an investigation into the man's affairs.
affairs
- personal or business interestshis affairs were in disorder
- matters of public interestcurrent affairs
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affair
- a thing to be done or attended to; matter; businessthis affair must be cleared up
- an event or happeninga strange affair
- (qualified by an adjective or descriptive phrase) something previously specified, esp a man-made object; thingour house is a tumbledown affair
- a sexual relationship between two people who are not married to each other
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See also affairs
Word Origin
C13: from Old French, from à faire to do
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for affairs
n.
"ordinary business," late 15c., plural of affair (n.).
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affair
n.
c.1300, "what one has to do," from Anglo-French afere, Old French afaire (12c., Modern French affaire) "business, event; rank, estate," from the infinitive phrase à faire "to do," from Latin ad "to" (see ad-) + facere "to do, make" (see factitious).
A Northern word originally, brought into general use and given a French spelling by Caxton (15c.). General sense of "vague proceedings" (in romance, war, etc.) first attested 1702. Meaning "an affair of the heart; a passionate episode" is from French affaire de coeur (itself attested in English from 1809); to have an affair with someone in this sense is by 1726, earlier have an affair of love:
'Tis manifeſtly contrary to the Law of Nature, that one Woman ſhould cohabit or have an Affair of Love with more than one Man at the ſame time. ["Pufendorf's Law of Nature and Nations," transl. J. Spavan, London, 1716]
Thus, in our dialect, a vicious man is a man of pleasure, a sharper is one that plays the whole game, a lady is said to have an affair, a gentleman to be a gallant, a rogue in business to be one that knows the world. By this means, we have no such things as sots, debauchees, whores, rogues, or the like, in the beau monde, who may enjoy their vices without incurring disagreeable appellations. [George Berkeley, "Alciphron or the Minute Philosopher," 1732]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper