Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AF-FECT', v.t. [L. afficio, affectum, of ad and facio, to make; L. affecto, to desire, from the same root. Affect is to make to, or upon, to press upon.]

1. To act upon; to produce an effect or change upon; as, cold affects the body; loss affects our interests.
2. To act upon, or move the passions; as, affected with grief.
3. To aim at; aspire to; desire or entertain pretension to; as, to affect imperial sway. [See the etymology of Affair.]
4. To tend to by natural affinity or disposition; as, the drops of a fluid affect a spherical form.
5. To love, or regard with fondness. Think not that wars we love and strife affect. – Fairfax. [This sense closely allied to the third.]
6. To make a show of; to attempt to imitate, in a manner not natural; to study the appearance of what is not natural, or real; as, to affect to be grave; affected friendship. It seems to have been used formerly for convict or attaint, as in Ayliffe's Parergon; but this sense is not now in use.