affair (ə"fEə(r)),
noun. Plural: affairs.
[From Old French afaire, originally infinitive phrase à faire to do, from Latin ad + facere to do, like ado in English for at do. Etymological identity with the Italian affare and French affaire.)
1. a. What one has to do; what one has ado; what has to be done.
Synonym: ado; business.
Semantic-etymological identity with French affaire, Italian affare.
Now this affair of putting up walls and connecting them strongly with a roof has
been the chief concern of architects.
Arthur Stanley George Butler (The substance of architecture, 1926)
This affair of writing fiction.
Albert Shaw (The American review of reviews, 1926)
It is unanimously agreed that it is not an easy affair to preserve and promote the autonomy and well-being of the patient […]
Richard E. Ashcroft (Principles of Health Care Ethics, 2007)
The affair of the establishment of a government is a very difficult undertaking.
Edmund Burke (Policy of the Allies with respect to France, 1793)
Dinner is a more serious affair.
John S. Blackie (On Self-Culture, 1874)
The whole leap was the affair of a moment.
Edgar A. Poe
Her domestic affairs.
Thomas Hardy (A Changed Man, 1913)
Mary actually knew everything about my domestic affairs almost as well as if she had lived opposite to me herself, for my neighbours knew a good deal about me.
Walter (My Secret Life, 1888)
To strip the two [girls], and examine their cunts was an affair of five minutes.
Walter (My Secret Life, 1888)
2. (In this acceptation affair synonymizes vaguely with thing and concern, but it may retain its connotation of ado) A thing that concerns any one or anything; a concern, a matter.
Semantic-etymological identity with French affair and Italian affare.
They don't want to get mixed up in it because it isn't their affair.
Brad Sebstad. (Webst. Third ed.)
The pretext that the affairs of another are his own affairs.
John Mill (On Liberty, 1859)
It's an affair of money.
George Meredith (The Egoist, 1879)
I never knew a woman who would or could tell straight off, intelligibly, all about her first fucking, or any fucking affair.
Walter (My Secret Life, 1888)
According to the psychiatrists, mental disturbance is primarily an affair of emotion and desire rather than of intellect.
R. S. Woodworth (Psychology, 1922)
3. (In plural. In a generalized reference) Deeds; human doings; occupations.
Semantic-etymological identity with French affaires and Italian affari.
Synonyms: businesses; pursuits, transactions.
Antonyms: Events, accidents.
I did not pretend to disguise from my perception the identity of the singular individual who thus perseveringly interfered with my affairs, and harassed me with his insinuated counsel.
Edgar A. poe.
The secret affairs and transactions of princes.
Ephraim Chambers (Cyclopedia, 1727–51)
He recognises what is played through feint, by the air with which it is thrown upon the table. A casual or inadvertent word; the accidental dropping or turning of a card, with the accompanying anxiety or carelessness in regard to its concealment; the counting of the tricks, with the order of their arrangement; embarrassment, hesitation, eagerness or trepidation - all afford, to his apparently intuitive perception, indications of the true state of affairs.
Edgar A. Poe
Specially:
a. Commercial or professional businesses.
Men of affairs, trained to business.
Samuel Smiles (Character, 1871)
This interpreter was a person employed to transact affairs with the Hollanders.
J. Swift (Gulliver’s Travels, 1726)
b. Public businesses; governmental transactions; functional deeds concerning either a nation or nations collectively.
A high-ranking State Department official well backgrounded in African affairs.
Washington Post, 1977 13 Mar.
Affairs of peace and war.
Edmund Burke (Thoughts On The Present Discontents, 1886)
Our foreign affairs.
Edmund Burke (Thoughts On The Present Discontents, 1886)
4. (In singular. In this acceptation, the exclusive connotation of human deed or personal doing mediated by the word affair in its precedent acceptations is not so in this one; consequently, it synonymizes with case, factual thing, happening, etc.)
I will tell you all I know about this affair; - but I do not expect you to believe one half I say - I would be a fool indeed if I did.
Edgar A. Poe
Since the affair of the letter, I had been in the habit of watching her house, and thus discovered that, about twilight, it was her custom to promenade, attended only by a negro in livery, in a public square overlooked by her windows.
Edgar A. Poe
I betook myself to a more methodical investigation of the affair.
Edgar A. Poe
The Tragedy in the Rue Morgue. Many individuals have been examined in relation to this most extraordinary and frightful affair.
Edgar A. Poe
The affair had occurred years and years ago; but what I had said had made him think and dream about it as if it were but yesterday.
Thomas Hardy (Desperate Remedies, 1871)
One evening, about a week after the affair of the picture, as he was sitting talking to Mrs. Bedwin, there came a message down from Mr. Brownlow, that if Oliver Twist felt pretty well, he should like to see him in his study, and talk to him a little while.
C. Dickens (Oliver Twist)
The millionocracy […] is not at all an affair of persons and families, but a perpetual fact of money with a variable human element.
Oliver W. Holmes (Elsie Venner, 1860)
Sometimes, affair refers vaguely to any proceeding or action which it is not wished to name or characterize, and it synonymizes with thing. Other times, affair is merely a semantic imitation of French affaire in the acceptations of “clandestine relationship between a man and a woman” and “case of public concern, often affecting official actors”.
5. (This acceptation is familiar and unworthy to imitate) Thing; a material object.
Semantic-etymological identity with French affaire and Italian affare.
A certain affair of fine red cloth much worn and faded.
Hawthorne.