affinity

affinity

English

Etymology

From Middle English affinite, from Old French affinité. Ostensibly equivalent to affine +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈfɪnɪti/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

affinity (countable and uncountable, plural affinities)

1. A natural attraction or feeling of kinship to a person or thing.
2. A family relationship through marriage of a relative (e.g. sister-in-law), as opposed to consanguinity (e.g. sister).
3. A kinsman or kinswoman of a such relationship; one who is affinal.
4. The fact of and manner in which something is related to another.
   • 1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 67, The Renaissance Episteme (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN:

     A “signature” was placed on all things by God to indicate their affinities — but it was hidden, hence the search for arcane knowledge. Knowing was guessing and interpreting, not observing or demonstrating.

5. Any romantic relationship.
6. A love interest; a paramour.
   • 1916 August 1, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 248, column 3:

     "Cut it short, sis, cut it short," he would growl at her if she started to murmur sweet "coo-coos" to her affinity stationed on the other end of the wire.

7. Any passionate love for something.
8. (taxonomy) resemblances between biological populations, suggesting that they have a common origin, type or stock.
9. (geology) structural resemblances between minerals; resemblances that suggest that they are of a common origin or type.
10. (chemistry) An attractive force between atoms, or groups of atoms, that contributes towards their forming bonds
11. (medicine) The attraction between an antibody and an antigen
12. (computing) tendency to keep a task running on the same processor in a symmetric multiprocessing operating system to reduce the frequency of cache misses
13. (geometry) An automorphism of affine space.

Hyponyms

• microaffinity

Derived terms

Compound words

• bioaffinity
• chemoaffinity
• equiaffinity
• hydroaffinity
• immunoaffinity
• lipoaffinity
• metalloaffinity
• microaffinity
• nonaffinity
• photoaffinity
• self-affinity
• socioaffinity

Expressions

• affinity card
• affinity fraud
• affinity reagent
• chemical affinity
• elective affinity
• electron affinity

 

Translations

natural attraction or feeling of kinship to a person or thing

Catalan: afinitat (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 親和力 (zh), 亲和力 (zh) (qīnhélì) Dutch: welgezindheid (nl) f, affiniteit (nl) Esperanto: afineco French: affinité (fr) f German: Affinität (de) f Hungarian: affinitás (hu), érzék (hu), fogékonyság (hu) Indonesian: afinitas (id) Japanese: アフィニティ (afiniti), 親和性 (しんわせい, shinwasei) Latin: affīnitās f Polish: bliskość (pl) f Portuguese: afinidade (pt) f Romanian: afinitate (ro) f Russian: бли́зость (ru) f (blízostʹ), сродство́ (ru) n (srodstvó), влече́ние (ru) n (vlečénije), тя́га (ru) f (tjága), схо́дство (ru) n (sxódstvo) (similarity) Serbo-Croatian: afinìtēt (sh) m, sklȍnōst (sh) f Spanish: afinidad (es) f Turkish: alaka (tr), ilgi (tr)

family relationship through marriage of a relative (e.g. sister-in-law), as opposed to consanguinity

Catalan: afinitat (ca) f Finnish: lankous (fi) French: affinité (fr) German: Verwandtschaft (de) f, Schwägerschaft (de) f (legal term) Hungarian: sógorság (hu) Polish: powinowactwo (pl) n Portuguese: afinidade (pt) f Romanian: afinitate (ro) f Russian: сродство́ (ru) n (srodstvó), родство́ (ru) n (rodstvó), свойство́ (ru) n (svojstvó), ро́дственность (ru) f (ródstvennostʹ) Serbo-Croatian: srȍdnōst (sh) f, sròdstvo (sh) n Swedish: samhörighet (sv) Turkish: sıhriyet (tr) Yiddish: מחותּנישאַפֿט‎ f (mekhutonishaft)

kinsman or kinswoman of such relationship

Finnish: sukulainen (fi) Hungarian: sógor (hu) Polish: powinowactwo (pl) n Portuguese: afim (pt) m or f Russian: ро́дственник (ru) m (ródstvennik), ро́дственница (ru) f (ródstvennica)

the fact of and manner in which something is related to another

Hungarian: kapcsolat (hu), rokon vonás, hasonlóság (hu)

romantic relationship

Finnish: mieltymys (fi) Hungarian: vonzalom (hu) Romanian: afinitate (ro) f Russian: влече́ние (ru) n (vlečénije), увлече́ние (ru) n (uvlečénije), рома́н (ru) m (román)

passionate love for something

Finnish: viehtymys Hungarian: vonzódás (hu), rajongás (hu) Portuguese: afinidade (pt) f Romanian: afinitate (ro) f Russian: влече́ние (ru) n (vlečénije), увлече́ние (ru) n (uvlečénije), тя́га (ru) f (tjága) Serbo-Croatian: afinìtēt (sh) m Spanish: afinidad (es) f

taxonomy: resemblances between biological populations, suggesting that they have a common origin, type or stock

geology: structural resemblances between minerals; resemblances that suggest that they are of a common origin or type

chemistry: attraction between atoms

Bulgarian: афините́т (bg) m (afinitét) Catalan: afinitat (ca) f Finnish: affiniteetti (fi) French: affinité (fr) f German: Affinität (de) f Hungarian: affinitás (hu), vegyrokonság Indonesian: afinitas (id) Italian: affinità (it) Portuguese: afinidade (pt) Russian: сродство́ (ru) n (srodstvó), аффините́т (ru) m (affinitét) Spanish: afinidad (es) Turkish: alaka (tr), ilgi (tr)

medicine: attraction between an antibody and an antigen

Bulgarian: афините́т (bg) m (afinitét) Finnish: affiniteetti (fi) French: affinité (fr) f German: Affinität (de) f Hungarian: affinitás (hu) Indonesian: afinitas (id) Italian: affinità (it) Portuguese: afinidade (pt) Russian: сродство́ (ru) n (srodstvó), аффините́т (ru) m (affinitét) Spanish: afinidad (es)