affair

[uh-fair]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR affair ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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.

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. 2019

Related Words for affairs

case, project, transaction, proceeding, question, topic, thing, incident, task, interest, employment, event, subject, liaison, relationship, province, duty, episode, happening, circumstance

Examples from the Web for affairs

Contemporary Examples of affairs

And that this state of affairs is not just the way things are.
It’s Always Black Friday for Clerks
Michael Tomasky
November 28, 2014
If State of Affairs succeeds, it could change the conversation around Heigl.
It’s Time to Stop Hating Katherine Heigl
Kevin Fallon
November 17, 2014
Frankly, I have never heard anyone else speak with such insight into Afghan affairs, post-US surge.
Heart of Darkness: Into Afghanistan’s Taliban Valley
Matt 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.”
Janis Joplin’s Kozmic Blues
William O’Connor
November 8, 2014
Instead, she advocates for a major shift away from a morally-driven condemnation of affairs.
Why You’re Happily Married and Having an Affair
Ryan Selzer
November 2, 2014

Historical Examples of affairs

Here he had prestige because he was the son of Daniel Bines, organiser and man of affairs.
The Spenders
Harry Leon Wilson
Be a man of affairs like your pa, and like that fellow Shepler.
The Spenders
Harry Leon Wilson
I'm afraid of myself, even in spite of our affairs being so bad.
The Spenders
Harry Leon Wilson
I had but to demand an investigation into the man's affairs.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327
Various
You must propose an examination of his affairs on the part of the church.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327
Various

British Dictionary definitions for affairs

affairs

pl n

personal or business interestshis affairs were in disorder

matters of public interestcurrent affairs

affair

noun

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

Word Origin for affair

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

"ordinary business," late 15c., plural of affair (n.).

affair

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]